The story of Moscow

LIBRARY

University of

IRVINE

C CE

Hneurin

THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY

OF CALIFORNIA

IRVINE

L'bris

Professor R. F. Treharne

All rights reserved

The Story of MOSCOW

by Wirt Gerrare Illus-
trated by Helen M. James

London: ,/, M, Dent $ Co.
Aldine House, 29 and 30 Bedford Street
Covert Garden, W.C. ? * 1900

DK

PREFACE

D EADERS of the modern histories of Russia may
wonder by what right Moscow is included among
MEDIAEVAL TOWNS, for it is the fashion of recent writers to
ignore the history of the mighty Euro- Asian empire
prior to the eighteenth century and the reign of Peter
the Great. It is at that period this story of the old
Muscovite capital ends. To many, then, this account
of the town and its vicissitudes during the preceding
five centuries may have the charm of novelty ; per-
chance to others, who have wrongly concluded that the
old buildings were all destroyed during Napoleon's
invasion, the few typical antiquities chosen for illustra-
tion out of many like, will attract to a closer acquaintance
with memorials of a past that was but little influenced
by the art of the west.

Moscow, where the east merges with the west but
remains distinct and unconquered, has a fascination all
its own ; the town not only has been great, but is so yet ;
its influence pervades the Russian empire and is still
mutable and active ; its story therefore comprises more
than the legends and associations of an ordinary city,
but, if confined merely to an enumeration of the facts
and traditions of the past will not be void of interest,
and however fully given, must fall far short of what the
imaginative reader may reasonably expect. Of the

Prefc

ace

meagre character of this present account I am fully
aware ; of its positive errors I am, at present, unhappily
ignorant, but I trust that those who discover mistakes
will not only forgive, but notify me of them, that later
readers may be as grateful for the favour as I myself
shall be. Of place names I have given the idiomatic,
instead of the usual literal translation ; where I have
attempted an equivalent reproduction of the original the
transliteration will be comprehensible to those who know
nothing of either French or German. That I may not
be charged with inconsistency in this, I may explain that
where a foreign spelling as rouble has become familiar
I have used the Anglicism. To most readers the names
will, I fear, be unpronounceable however spelled ; but
only the expert will regret that I have not given the
original Russian. To them the excuse I offer is, that
to everyone ignorant of the tongue Russian names are
absolutely undecipherable, being apparently composed
of an alphabet in spasms made up into words of poly-
syllabic length.

It is difficult for one not of the Eastern Church to
write justly of Russian Ecclesiasticism ; an alien, how-
ever carefully he may observe, is liable to obtain faulty
impressions and make erroneous deductions ; so to me
any criticism seems an impertinence. I have tried to
present its artistic phases fairly, but am conscious that
the ninth chapter is the least satisfactory of all that I
have written.

For the rest, my task has been easy : I have had but
to examine, compare, and judge the work of others and
from their stored treasures make my selection. I have
vi

Preface

produced little that is really original : others have delved
amid ruins for vestiges of the earlier Moscow ; have
unearthed ancient monuments; transcribed illegible
manuscripts ; ransacked archives, measured walls, calcu-
lated heights, weighed bells and counted steps ; formed
theories and found evidence to support them ; so have
rendered my labour light and pleasant. I regret that
I, who at best am but an intelligible interpreter, cannot
acknowledge more particularly the hundred and more
authorities from whom I have drawn ; in the same
inadequate, general fashion I must thank many friends,
English and Russian, for the kindly interest they have
taken in the work and the intelligent assistance they
have rendered me in its compilation. For direction to
valuable sources of information, and other services, I
am conscious of particular indebtedness to the Rev. F.
Wyberg, of the English Church, Moscow, and to Mr V.
E. Marsden, the correspondent of the Standard there
either of whom might have written a much better
book about the town they know so well. The object
of this volume I shall consider to be achieved if its
perusal gives to anyone pleasure equal to that its compila-
tion has brought me ; or awakens even a few readers
to a greater interest in Moscow, and a better under-
standing of the Russian people.

WIRT GERRARE.

vn

Tbi, KaKi, MyneaeKT,, ropkia,

H ptKa BT> Teo-fc

EypHOiLiaMeHHafl !
H no/ji. nen-ioMi, Tbi

IlOJOHeHHOK) !

H H3i> nen^a TBI Boaciaja,

ii ',!.(' <-.m itoii li'li-i noii,
Fopo^i. xpaMOBT> H najarb !
Fpajb cpeAHHHbiH, rpa#b
KopeHHOii Pocciii rpa^T. !

6. FJHHKA.

White-<walled and golden-headed.

Beautiful, bizarre,
The pride of all the millions

Ruled by the Russian Tsar :
The cradle of an Empire,

Shrine of a great race,
With Europe's noblest cities

Moscow halo's its place!

V. E. M.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

PAGE

Introduction P re- Muscovite Russia I

CHAPTER II
Origin and Early History . . . . I I

CHAPTER III
Moscow under the Mongols . . . . 21

CHAPTER IV

Moscow of the Princes . . . . . 37

CHAPTER V
Ivan the Terrible ..... 47

CHAPTER VI
The Troublous Times ...'.. 80

CHAPTER VII

Moscow of the Tsars . . . . 1 1 i

ix

Contents

CHAPTER VIII

PAGE

The Kremlin . . . . . .147

CHAPTER IX

Moscow of the Ecclesiastics . . . . 172

CHAPTER X

Moscow of the Citizens . . . .206

CHAPTER XI

Ancient Customs and Quaint Survivals . . 227

CHAPTER XII
The Convents and Monasteries . . . 253

CHAPTER XIII

Moscow of the English . . . . 270

CHAPTER XIV
The French Invasion and after . . . 284

CHAPTER XV

Itinerary and Miscellaneous Information . . 303

Index 309

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

The Virgin of Vladimir ( Vladimirski Bogei-

mater'i} by St Luke . . . Frontispiece

The Kremlin . . . . . . 13

Danilovski Monastery . . . . . 17

Spass na Boru ...... 29

Ilyinka Gate of the Kitai Gorod . -39

Doorivay of St Lazarus . . . . 45

Alarm Bell To<wer . . . . - 5^

Vasih Blajenni . . . . . 67

The Terem A Corridor . . . . 83

Church of the Assumption . . . . 89

Dom Romanovykh . . . . .108

Belvedere of the Terem . . . . .117

Krutitski Vorot . . . . . .122

Krasnce Kriltso . . . . . .126

Throne Room of the Terem . . . . 135

Vosskresensii Vorot and Iberian Chapel . . 143
Kremlin Wall and Tower . . . .148

Terem and Belvedere of the Potieshni Dvorets . 154
Church of Our Saviour behind the Golden Gates 1 6 1
Potieshni Dvorets, or Pleasure Palace . . 167

Illustrations

PAGE

Church of the Nativity (Rojdestva V-Putinkakh] 1 8 1
Uspenski Sobor The Ikonostas . . . 1 86
Cathedral of the Annunciation ( Blagovieshchenski

Sobor) . . . . . .193

Church and Gate of Mary of Vladimir . . 204

Srietenka The Sukharev Bashnia . . . 208

St Nicholas Stylite " 218

Dom Chukina . . . . . .223

Krestovia in the Romanof House . . . 229

Varvarka Vorot of the Kitai Gorod . . 238
A Chastok (Watch Tower) . . . .245

Petro-vski Monastery . . . . .250

Simorwv Monastery . . . . .261

Novo Devichi Convent . . . . . 267

Spas ski f^orot, Toiver over the Redeemer Gate . 279
Borovitski Gate and St Saviour's Cathedral . 299
Plan of the Kremlin .... face 125

Map of Moscow 308

Moscow

CHAPTER I
Introduction P re-Muscovite R ussia

" Cimmerii a Scythis nomadibus ejecti." HERODOTUS.

'"THE mediaeval pilgrim to Moscow, getting his first
glimpse of the Holy City from Salutation Hill,
saw before him much the same sight as the tourist of
to-day may look upon from the same spot. Three
miles away a hill crowned with white-walled buildings,
many towers, gilded domes and spires topped with
Cross-and-Crescent ; outside the wall that encircles
this hill, groups of buildings, large and small ; open
fields, trees singly, in rows, clumps and thickets
separate group from group ; ever and anon above the
many hued roofs reach belfries, spires, steeples, domes
and minarets innumerable. Beyond, to right and left,
the scene repeats itself until the bright coloured build-
ings become indistinguishable from the masses of
verdure and all merge in the haze of the plains east
and west, or the faint outline of forest to the north.

Long ago the tremendous extent of this town,
apparently without limit, amazed strangers no less than
the richness and multitude of its buildings filled pilgrims
with awe and reverence. To the tourist to-day it is
as a vision of magnificent splendour and brilliance, for

The Story of Moscow

seen in the clear sunlight of a summer day Moscow has
beauty and brightness no other city possesses. Long
lines of ivory whiteness capped with vivid green or
flushed with carmine and ruby ; great globes of deepest
blue, patches of purple and dashes of aquamarine ; many
gleaming domes of gold, glowing halos of burnished
copper, dazzling points of glistening silver such make
Moscow at sunset like part of a rainbow streaked with
lightning and thickly bedizened with great gems.

Intense colours, sharp contrasts characterise Moscow.
The extravagances of design and colouring, unconceal-
able even in the general prospect, are obvious on closer
inspection. The stranger arriving by railway gets no
bird's-eye view of the town ; but on his way from the
station in the suburbs towards the central town sees
the painted roofs, coloured walls, pretentious pillars,
cupolas with golden stars, strange towers, fantastic gates,
immense buildings, tiny cottages, magnificent spaces,
narrow winding streets; irregularities and incongruities
so many that Moscow first, and most lastingly, im-
presses by its bizarrerle.

With fuller acquaintance the diversity of style appears
in keeping with the spirit of the place, and seeming in-
congruities are softened, or redeemed, by originality of
design or execution. The buildings of Moscow are
multiform, but there is dissimilarity rather than con-
trariety ; the usual elsewhere is the unconventional
here, and conformity is attained by each being unlike
all others. An early traveller wrote : " One might
imagine all the states of Europe and Asia had sent a
building by way of representation to Moscow," and in
a certain sense this is still true. But it would be in-
correct to assume, therefore, that cosmopolitanism is a
dominant trait. The very reverse is the fact. Moscow
is essentially Russian, and though there is abundant
evidence of borrowing from Greece, Italy and Byz-

2

Introduction

antium ; from Moor, Goth and Mongol ; of appropria-
tion of classic, mediaeval and renaissance methods, the
prevalent style seems to be not exactly the combination
of any so much as the outcome of all. Not that indi-
genous forms are wanting, but their elemental quality is
obscured by the wondrous versatility and adaptability of
the artists. The result is as confusing as though an
author in writing out his original ideas made constant
random use of different alphabets in each word.

This method, so characteristic of Russia, is per-
plexing rather than intricate, but he would be very
learned or foolhardy who, acting on the rule that
to see the house is to know the inmates, if shown
Moscow should at once predicate the character of its
inhabitants.

Yet more than most towns Moscow reflects the life
history of its people ; whatever there is of beauty, of
strength, of individuality, is the result of human intelli-
gence, experience and effort. No town of like im-
portance owes so little to nature, so much to man.
And the dominant tone is religious ; religious feeling
has inspired the noblest efforts, ecclesiastical influence
has conserved such oneness of purpose as Moscow
manifests. Withal there is strong individualism, both
clerical and secular.

Paradoxical as Moscow is, it is in the highest degree
interesting. If no one object can be pointed to as
typical of race or period, no public work shown as the
result of persistent policy or genius of peculiar citizen-
ship, Moscow in its entirety demonstrates the develop-
ment of a people. Even the opposing principles of
diffusion and cohesion, and the parts they have served
in the history of this race, are so unmistakably ex-
pressed that the sight-seer, even, feels that in Moscow,
most surely, must be found the key not only to the
history of Russia, but also to the character of men

'The Story of Moscow

who have conquered and hold the largest part of two
continents.

Moscow, the town that has cradled and nursed a
mighty nation, does not lack story ; but its story com-
prises much of the early history of the empire subse-
quently evolved, and consequently much that may be
considered foreign to the city itself must be stated if
the tale is to be complete, or even comprehensible by
those to whom the ancient history of Russia is un-
known.

To begin at the beginning. European Russia is an
immense plain, its centre elevated scarcely three
hundred feet above sea-level ; the hills, few, low and
unimportant. Lakes are plentiful, and great rivers
with many ramifications flow slowly by tortuous
channels mostly towards the north-west or the south-
east. Large tracts of forest and marsh in the centre
terminate with frozen wastes to the north, and merge
with rough, sandy pastures on the south.

At various periods, Europe has been invaded and
peopled by different races from the east, and the last
of these migrants, the Slavs, for the most part took
the direction of the great water-ways of Russia, that
is, from the south-east towards the north-west. In
addition to their nomadic habit, various causes, amongst
which must be counted internecine warfare, led to the
dispersion of the Slavs, whilst effective occupation by
earlier migrants and the determined resistance of ab-
original races checked their progress in some directions.
The Scythian branch of the Slav race settled on the
Don about 400 B.C. but was gradually driven from the
shores of the Black Sea by the Greek colonists of
Miletus. These colonies were taken by the Romans

Pre-Muscovite Russia

later, and about 300 A.D. the Slavs again asserted their
dominion there for a period. Other branches of the
Slav race and wilder races from Asia pressed westward,
laying the country waste. Huns, Turks, Goths,
Bolgars, Magyars, Polovtsi, Pechenegians and others,
at different times, drove Slavs of pastoral habit aside
from their path. In the fifth century Slavs established
themselves on the Dnieper at Kief and at Novgorod
on the Ilmen, where they progressed and became
civilised. In the seventh century they were once
more on the shores of the Black Sea in the south, and
in the north Novgorod was a thriving commercial
centre.

The Slav republics suffered at the hands of Asiatics
on the south, and from the depredations of vikings on
the north ; moreover there were internal dissensions.
In A.D. 864, Rurik, a Varoeger prince the same
who, it is believed, laid waste the maritime provinces
of France in 850 and in 851 entered the Thames
with 300 sail and pillaged Canterbury made himself
master of the northern republic, took up his residence
at Novgorod and founded a dynasty which lasted 700
years. There is a legend to the effect that his coming
was at the invitation of the Slavs, who sought his aid
and sovereignty, but there can be no doubt it was as a
conqueror that Rurik came and established his race
in Russia. Some of his followers, led by Askold and
Dyr, sought fortune and conquest further south. These
became masters of Kief, pressed on to Constantinople
in 200 ships, embraced Christianity and returned to
Kief, intending there to found a separate kingdom
and dynasty. After the death of Rurik, his son Igor,
a minor, succeeded ; his uncle, Oleg, as regent, went
to Kief; there he treacherously killed the two usurping
leaders, took possession of the city and, appointing
Igor to the throne, determined that Kief should be

s

The Story of Moscow

the " mother of Russian towns." The people were
then pagans, and the Northmen kept to the practices
of their ancestors until about 955, when Olga was
regent ; she visited Constantinople and was there
baptised into the Christian faith. Some thirty years
later, Vladimir, the seventh in descent from Rurik,
ascended the throne, and during his reign the Christian
religion was generally adopted throughout his realm.
Kief then became closely associated with Constantinople,
its connection with the Byzantine empire being both
ecclesiastical and commercial. Novgorod, on the other
hand, remained in closer touch with the west, supplying
the Northmen with the wares of Araby and Ind that
reached Russia by way of the Volga. Otther, the
Scandinavian founder of Tver, where the Tmak joins
the Volga north of Moscow, was a great trader and
traveller ; at one time going as far east as Perm on
the Kama (Biarmaland), at another to England
where he gave King Alfred particulars of the fairs in
the east, and the methods of trading with Asian
merchants.

In the Historical Museum of Moscow is a well
arranged collection of prehistoric antiquities found in
the empire. There is nothing among the stone im-
plements to show that the earliest races in Russia in
any way differed in habit from those of the same era
occupying western Europe and the British Isles. The
most ancient of the relics (Rooms I., II.) were found
with bones of the mammoth in the district of Murom
in Vladimir, and at Kostenki near Voronesh. Some
ear-rings and a bracelet of twisted silver were found in
the Kremlin, and a few other early remains when
excavating for the foundations of the new cathedral,
but these trifles are not evidence of early occupation,
since they may have been left by travellers along the
waterways.
6

Pre-Muscovite Russia

The frescoes are fanciful representations of supposed
incidents in the life of the early inhabitants, and the
models of tumuli, tombs, dolmens, cromlechs and the
like, enable one to picture some part of the rude life
of the people. Particularly deserving notice are the
models of the dwellings of different races found in
Russia: in many the living room is raised well above the
ground. It was on the first-floor that the mediasyal
Muscovites lived ; it is still the bel-etage, and preferred
by all.

The picture by Semiradski representing the funeral
rites of the Bolgars has the warrant of history. On
the death of a chief of this tribe, the remains were
placed in a boat on a pile of wood ; horses, cattle,
slaves, were slain and added ; the wife, or a maid
offering herself a sacrifice, was feted for a time, then
placed in the boat, and as soon as her attendants bade
her farewell the pyre was fired, and subsequently a
mound raised over the ashes.

The stone idols, remarkable in their likeness to each
other, are from all parts of Russia ; a similar one is to be
seen at Kuntsevo, near Moscow, but both the " babas,"
as they are called, and pre-christian crosses, are more
common in the south and east of Russia than in
Muscovy.

To the little that this Historical Collection tells of
the early Slavs may be added such facts as ancient
chroniclers have recorded. The Russians lived together
in communities governed by elected or hereditary elders ;
reared cattle and farmed bees ; they were nomadic,
idolatrous, hospitable and fond of fermented liquors.

Some writers dispute, disregard, or belittle the
Varangian dominion in Russia ; contending that the
Varoegers themselves were Slavs, were closely akin
to them, or were quickly absorbed by them. To the
contrary it is urged that Rurik and his followers

possessed qualities peculiar to the Northmen ; that his
kingdom in Russia resembled other Scandinavian
colonies, and that certain customs he introduced were
foreign to Slav habits. Vladimir, a direct descendant
of Rurik, conquered Poland ; his son, Yaroslaf, both
on account of his warlike achievements and the
splendour in which he lived, was respected throughout.
Europe. His daughters married into the reigning
houses of France, Hungary and Norway ; a daughter of
Vsevolod married Henry IV. of Germany ; Vladimir,
the grandson of Yaroslaf, married Gyda, the daughter of
Harold II. King of England; their son, Mstislaf, married
Christina, daughter of the King of Sweden. Such a
close connection between the Scandinavian and Russian
courts is not likely to have obtained if the members
belonged to different races. Scandinavian conquerors
to some extent mixed with the peoples whose territory
they occupied ; usually they married their own race.
They fought with each other on matters of precedence
and succession ; they thought much of personal valour
and honour, and lived in the present with little regard
to dynasty. They, as little as the Slavs to-day, would
pay tribute to suzerains.

Doubtless the Varangian leaders and their military
companions, subsequently known as the drujni of the
Russian princes, gave to the Slav character love of
enterprise and power to initiate traits which have
always distinguished Russian nobles from the peasantry.
Again, the " Russkaia Pravda" of the tenth century
is contemporary with and akin to " Knut's Code,"
which the English usually, but wrongly, attribute to King
Alfred. One other point tells in favour of Scandi-
navian dominion : the freedom accorded to women and
the high position some of them took in the state. But
their privileges and influence declined with the ascend-
ency of the Slav, and the seclusion of women in the
8

P re-Muscovite Russia

Asiatic manner subsequently obtained in Moscow and
lasted there until the days of Peter the Great.

The Northmen introduced into Russia their system
of succession, the odelsret that still prevails in Norway.
The descendants of Rurik, with their military com-
rades, fought against each other for the throne of Kief,
or the inheritance of other possessions. As with each
succeeding generation the princely family multiplied,
the country was rent with dissensions. Now the ruler
of Kief, then he of Novgorod became paramount ; in
1158 the reigning prince of Vladimir succeeded, and,
for the time, Kief became of second importance. The
history of Russia during the tenth and succeeding
centuries is a story of strife and disaster. Wars, with
varying success, against Poles, Swedes, Lithuanians,
and the predatory tribes on the south and east ; fires,
famine, pestilence, succeeded each other and re-occurred.
In 1124 Kief, the opulent and sacred city, was
destroyed by fire ; some years later Novgorod was
depopulated by famine ; robbers exacted blackmail
from voyagers on the great waterways ; trade decayed.
In 1224 the Russians made common cause with their
enemy the Polovtsi to repel an invasion of Tartars ;
they were beaten and Kief fell 50,000 of its in-
habitants being put to the sword. Thirteen years
later a second invasion of the Tartars resulted in the
fall of Vladimir and the subjection of southern and
eastern Russia to Mongol rule. Livonians, Swedes
and Danes attacked Novgorod, but were repulsed.
Pressed on these sides the Russians could extend only
towards the inhospitable north. In these times and
with this environment Moscow was founded, and
nursed ; became a rallying point for the Slav race ;
grew strong and rich ; and, by the genius of its rulers,
dominated Russia.

Slowly but surely the Scandinavian element was

The Story of Moscow

absorbed; with Ivan I. (1328-1341) the time of
transition practically ended. A new policy of ag-
grandisement was adopted and the Muscovite was
evolved from the Slav race. Round Moscow, subject
to the Tartar yoke, the people became patient and
resigned ; born to endure bad fortune, they could
profit by good. The princes of Moscow gained
their ends by intrigue, by corruption, by the purchase
of consciences, by servility to the Tartar Khans, by
perfidy to their equals, by murder and treachery.
" Politic and persevering, prudent and pitiless, it is
their honour to have created the living germ which
became great Russia."

10

CHAPTER II
Origin and Early History

"Away in the depths of the primeval forest, where one
heard the low chanting of the solitary hermit in his retreat,
arises the glorious Kremlin of Moscow town."

M. DMITRIEV.

IT is generally believed that the word Moscow is of
Finnish origin ; in an old dialect kva means water,
the exact significance of Mas is undecided, probably
Moskva implies " the-way," simply the water-route
to some trading point reached by this river from the
Volga and Oka. It was the name by which the
river was known, and from time immemorial there
have been villages on the banks of the stream near
the present town of Moscow.

In the ninth century the hill which the Kremlin
now covers was virgin forest. According to tradition
Bookal, a hermit, was living there in 882, when Oleg,
on his return to Novgorod from Kief, paused there
and laid the first stone of the city. Sulkhovski, who
had access to the archives of Moscow prior to their
removal on the French invasion, asserts that there
was documentary proof of this then in existence, but
his statement lacks confirmation.

The chroniclers make no mention of Moscow until
1147. Between the foundation of the Rurik dynasty
and this date the dominion of the Northmen had
extended, and, divided and subdivided as generation
succeeded generation, was split up into many districts,

II

The Story of Moscow

each ruled by a descendant of Rurik. These princes
all claimed kinship, admitted the rights of their elders
and the rule of the head of the house in Kief. In
addition to the residences of the princes, their Jrujni,
that is " war companions " or friends, had " halls,"
and held, subject to their prince, one or more villages.
In the twelfth century one Stephen Kutchko had his
hall near the Chisty Prud in Moscow, and the villages
between the Moskva and the Yauza, with others, were
within his lordship.

In 1147 Yuri Dolgoruki, the Prince of Suzdal, in
whose country Moscow was situated, agreed to meet
his kinsmen Sviatoslaf and Oleg of Novgorod on the
banks of the Moskva river, and thither they came with
their drujni, and others, all of whom were so sumptuously
entertained by Yuri, that the fame of Moscow and of
Yuri was noised abroad.

As the river Moskva was a highway for traffic
between Suzdal, Vladimir and the Volga in the east,
with Smolensk in the west and Kief in the south,
the villages on its banks were important. The hill
on which the Kremlin stands appeared to Yuri a point
of vantage, and, as it was near the boundary of his
territory, he there constructed a fortress and also built,
or rebuilt or enlarged, the church which served for the
inhabitants of the village of Kutchkovo hard by, and
for those of other villages in the neighbourhood.

All chroniclers agree that Yuri was the first to make
a stronghold of the hill on the Moskva ; most state
further that he put to death Stephen Kutchko, but
attribute this act to different causes. One story has
it that Yuri wished to wed the wife of Stephen, so
put him out of the way. As Yuri was but recently
married to a kinswoman of Mstislaf, and so allied to the
dominant house in Novgorod, this story is improbable.
Another legend is to the effect that Kutchko, proud
12

Origin and Early History

of his village, refused due homage to his superior lord,
and so suffered ; and another that a village was taken
from Kutchko to endow Andrew Bogoloobski, a son
of Yuri's wedded to the daughter of a neighbouring
boyard, whence the trouble. This last story is
supported by the fact that later the sons of the killed
Kutchko conspired against the enriched Andrew
Bogoloobski ; one was killed in attacking him, whilst
the other succeeded in avenging a wrong done. Later
historians are of opinion that Kutchko was an inter-
loper from Black Russia or Podolia, trespassing on
the territory of Yuri, who treated him as a usurper.

It was in 1156 that Moscow became a town just
a cluster of dwellings on the Kremlin hill with a fence
extending from the narrow stream Neglinnaia (now a
covered sewer under the Alexander Gardens), from
the Troitski Gate to the Moskva at, or near, the
Tainitski Gate. The chief house was built on the
spot now covered by the Orujnia Palata. A church,
Spass na Boru, St Saviour of the Pines, is supposed
to have existed where the church of that name, the
oldest building in the Kremlin, now stands. Another
church, dedicated to St John the Baptist, once existed
nearer the foot of the hill, and its altar was removed
to the chapel adjoining the Borovitski Gate when a
later erection was demolished. Both of these churches
were known as " In the Wood," and the name still
preserves the memory of the thick forest that once
covered the hill, and probably extended far and near
on both sides of the Moskva.

The founder of Moscow, Kniaz Yuri Dolgoruki
Vladimirovich, or, as the English call him, Prince
George Long-ith'-arm, Vladimir's son, was a son of
that Prince of Kief who married Gyda, the daughter
of Harold II. of England. Yuri, like his father, was
a man of great energy and did much to strengthen and

15

The Story of Moscow

improve the towns within his territory. He is described
as "above the middle height, stout, fair complexioned,
with a large nose, long and crooked ; his chin small ;
a great lover of women, sweet things and liquor ; great
at merry-makings, and not backward in war."

For a century or more Moscow remained in obscurity,
an insignificant appanage of the younger sons of the
princes of Suzdal. It was long before any of the
reigning house made it a place of residence. In the
meantime, a stronghold, it attracted traders and the
attention of enemies. Gleb of Riazan has the dis-
tinction of being the first to set fire to the town, but
the earliest enemy of importance was the Tartar.

In 1224 tne Golden Horde defeated the Slavs
in South Russia, destroyed Kief, marched towards
Novgorod Sverski, then, " without ostensible reason,"
returned to Bokhara, to the camp of their leader,
Khingiz Khan. In 1237 Baati, a grandson of
Khingiz, crossed the Volga and laid the country
waste. On the march of this horde westward Moscow
was burnt ; Vladimir was first taken. There the
princess and other persons of distinction took refuge
in a church, where they were burnt alive. Yuri II.,
the reigning prince, absent at the time, then attempted
revenge and was slain in battle. There was little
resistance ; the Tartars subdued many towns and
reduced whole provinces ; marched within sixty miles
of Novgorod Sverski, then again " without ostensible
cause" turned eastward and left Russia.

The Tartar was not driven from his own country ;
he raided because it was his nature so to do. The
object of these early incursions, as of subsequent raids
into Russian territory, was " to get stores of captives,
both boys and girls, whom they sell to the Turks
and other neighbouring Mahometan countries." Rich
towns, therefore, could buy the Tartar off; a fact
16

Origin and Early History

which influenced the later policy of the Muscovites.
Poor towns and ill-protected districts were, until a
comparatively recent period, liable to " slave-raids "
from Tartars and others. The Sultan Ahmed I. of
Constantinople asked of Osman, his eldest son and
heir, " My Osman, wilt thou conquer Crete for me ? "

DANILOVSKI MONASTYR

" What have I to do with Crete ? I will conquer the
land of the white Russian girls," answered the boy.
And as he thought to do, so many of his race did.
It was not until the present century that the exchange
of prisoners of war became the practice of Turks and
B 17

'The Story of Moscow

Russians. The Tartars, with their enormous crowd of
captives, could not winter in Russia, hence their
timely withdrawal " without ostensible cause " on
several occasions.

Moscow was soon rebuilt after this Tartar invasion.
A few years later Michael Khorobrit, a brother of the
successful Alexander Nevski, ruler of Novgorod, suc-
ceeded to Moscow, and became its first actual prince ;
but during the war the Lithuanians commenced against
Novgorod in 1242, Michael was killed. Tradition
has it that this Michael was the builder of the first
cathedral of the Archangel in the Kremlin.

He was succeeded in Moscow by Daniel, the fourth
son of Alexander Nevski, and thenceforward the
fortunes of Novgorod and Moscow were more in
common. Moscow was chief of the few villages
Daniel received as his portion. He made the most
of it. In 1 293 the Tartars, under Dudenia, fired
the town and destroyed the churches, monastery, and
all buildings on the Kremlin hill. Daniel set ener-
getically to work to build a larger and stronger town.
He re-erected the church Spass na Boru ; built the
cathedral of the Archangel, and that of the Annun-
ciation ; founded the Danilof monastery, and incor-
porated the one known as Krutitski. He so added to
the town that it quickly became prosperous, and when
he died in 1303 his son, George, succeeded to a posi-
tion of wealth and power. Daniel was of the line of
Rurik, and from him were descended the subsequently
mighty race of Moscow Tsars. George acquired
Mojaisk ; then began a struggle with Tver, which
continued from father to son, lasted eighty years.
The quarrel arose from a disputed succession.
Andrew, Prince of Suzdal, died in 1304; George
of Moscow, his nephew, wished to succeed him. His
right to do so was questioned by Michael of Tver,
18

Origin and Early History

who was cousin-german of the deceased. Michael,
the eldest, was accepted by the boyars, and his election
was confirmed by the Tartars, who claimed the right
of appointing the sovereign. George then caused
himself to be recognised as a Prince of Novgorod,
and still disputed. Michael besieged him in Moscow,
and for a time there was peace. Then George again
attempted to obtain Tver, and a second time he was
forced to take refuge in Moscow, which was again
besieged by Michael.

Tokhta, Khan of the Golden Horde of Tartars on
the Volga, died ; he was succeeded by Usbek, to whom
George of Moscow at once repaired to do homage and
obtain favours. He so represented affairs to Usbek
that he obtained from him his sister Kontchaka in
marriage, and was adjudged rightful successor to
Andrew of Suzdal. George returned to Russia ac-
companied by a Mongol army under a baskak, one
Kavgadi. The boyards still supported Michael, who
was a great fighter. Michael, refusing to submit to
Kavgadi, was accused of having drawn sword against
an envoy of the Khan, and later, when Kontchaka
died, of having poisoned her. To arrange this matter
Michael, busy in defending his province against other
enemies, sent his twelve-year old son to the Horde ;
George went himself and compassed the fall of his
rival. The Khan reluctantly complied with George's
request for a sentence of death upon Michael ; it was
no sooner granted than George hastened away to give
it effect, and Michael was done to death in his tent by
George's servants. Michael became a saint ; George the
all-powerful ruler of Moscow, Suzdal and Novgorod.

Dmitri, of the " terrible eyes," son of Michael,
succeeded to Tver and determined upon revenge.
When at last he met George of Moscow he slew him,
but for thus going against his superior prince was him-

'9

T'be Story of Moscow

self put to death, and his brother, Alexander, succeeded
him in Vladimir in 1325.

Such is the story of the little wooden town. Its
rulers with, possibly, the exception of Daniel
regarded it merely as a property, the possession of
which might lead to the acquisition of a more im-
portant capital. It flourished because it was in the
midst of a country that was self-supporting, as well as
being conveniently situated as a mart for the inter-
change of products from north and south, east and
west. Its disasters were such as other towns suffered ;
its advantages of site they did not possess.

20

CHAPTER III
Moscow under the Mongols

" At Sara, in the lande of Tartarie,

There dwelled a king who werryed Russie."

CHAUCER Story of Gambtucan bold.

first real prince of Moscow was Ivan I., sur-
named "Kalita" (the Purser), who of his own
right inherited Moscow from his father, Daniel, and by
the grace of the Khan, was also Grand Prince of
Vladimir in succession to his brother George. He made
alliances, matrimonial and other, for himself and his,
so adding to his possessions, and by purchase acquir-
ing also Uglitch, Galitch and Bielozersk. Like his
brother he kept on good terms with the Khan. At
the command of Usbek he made war on Tver,
Novgorod and Pskov. The Tartar Horde and the
Muscovites fought in concert against Russian enemies.
When Tver rose against the Tartar, Ivan, with
Moscow, was on the side of the Mongols. When
Usbek ordered him to produce Alexander of Tver,
who was a fugitive in Pskov, Ivan induced the metro-
politan to interdict Alexander and the Pskovians
thus a Christian prince and people were excom-
municated by their own kin at the behest of Tartars.

Ivan " Kalita," in his turn, served the church well.
Peter, the metropolitan of Vladimir, had often resided in
Moscow ; Theognistus lived there almost constantly ;
and for Ivan, Vladimir was only the town in which

21

T'be Story of Moscow

he had been crowned. It was in Moscow that he
lived and for Moscow he worked. In order to make
it attractive to the metropolitan and to obtain for it
the religious supremacy which had first belonged to
Kiev, then to Vladimir, he built magnificent churches
notably that of the Assumption (Uspenski Sobor)
and was practically successful in so far that Moscow
had the prestige of a metropolis ; but Vladimir
remained the legal capital, and as such was recognised
by the Khans.

Ivan surrounded the hill with a wall of oak in place
of the deal fence formerly its sole protection, and he
gave to the enclosure the Tartar name of " Kreml "
or fortress. This then included his own dwelling ;
the cathedrals of the Assumption, of the Annunciation
and of the Archangel Michael ; the churches of Spass na
Boru and of St John the Baptist ; as also the dwellings
of his drujnij followers and military companions.
It was at his instigation too, that Sergius founded the
Troitsa monastery in order to rival the Pecherskoi
monastery and catacombs of Kiev. Ivan knew well
the power of money and was free in using it ; he was
cunning, unscrupulous and discerning. He demanded
and obtained from Novgorod more than he intended
to pay on her behalf to Usbek, and was everywhere
successful as farmer-general of taxes and imposts made
on Russia by the Horde. When he died, in 1341, he
ordered that Moscow should not be divided, and he
left by far the largest portion of his possessions to his
son Simeon, surnamed "The Proud."

Simeon, most submissive before the Khan, bought
over the horde by using his father's treasure. To his
brothers he was haughty and overbearing. As inter-
mediary between the Tartars and Russian states he
enjoyed privileges denied to his seniors, and arrogated
to himself the title and position of " Prince of all
22

Moscow under the Mongols

the Russias." He continued his father's policy in
Moscow, engaging Greek artists to ornament the
cathedrals, and many native workmen to enlarge and
improve the buildings within the Kremlin, spending
upon Moscow the tribute he exacted from Novgorod
and other towns.

Ivan II. who succeeded him, 1353, was of quite
another sort. Gentle, pacific, lovable all outraged
him ; he would have lost his throne had not the church
supported him loyally. Moris, a monk, quelled a
revolt ; a fire destroyed the Kremlin ; when he died
the succession to the title of Grand Duke, which his
three predecessors had made such efforts to keep in the
house of Moscow, passed to their kinsmen at Suzdal.

Alexis, the metropolitan, saved the supremacy of
Moscow. After crowning Dmitri at Vladimir he
returned to Moscow to take charge of the children of
Ivan II. and refused to leave the town. Dmitri was
in his ninth year when he succeeded his father in
Moscow, and remained in the tutelage of the church
for many years. It was to the prompting of Alexis
even more than to that of his own kinsmen that the
breach of the Tartar alliance is due. Dmitri availed
himself of a division in the Tartar horde to question the
supremacy of either leader. Later he had the courage
to visit Mamai who was then the more power-
ful and had the good luck to get back alive. Seven
years later he won a battle against Mamai, in Riazan.

In 1635 a fire on All Saints' Day destroyed the
Kremlin wall and, a storm raging at the time,
Moscow was almost in ruins. In 1367 the Kremlin
was surrounded with a new wall of masonry and in
the following year this was put to the test when an
attack was made on Moscow by some bands of pagan
Lithuanians under Olgerd, his brother Kistut and his
subsequently famous nephew Vitovt. " Olgerd camped

23

The Story of Moscow

before the walls, pillaged the churches and monasteries
in the neighbourhood, but did not assault the Kremlin,
the walls of which frightened him." Two years later
he returned to the attack, but his enterprise was un-
successful. In the meantime Mamai, the Tartar leader,
had matured his scheme of revenge. In 1 380 he had
collected his forces and was marching on Moscow
when Dmitri, with the aid of all the neighbouring
princes, got together an immense army and determined
to give battle.

The confederate troops gathered in the Kremlin
included contingents supplied by the princes of Rostov,
Bielozersk and Yaroslaf, and the boyards of Vladimir,
Suzdal, Uglitch, Serpukhov, Dmitrov, Mojaisk and
other towns. After service in the cathedral they left
by the Frolovski (Spasski) Nikolski and other gates
in the east wall, escorted by the clergy with crucifixes
and miracle-working ikons, the troops marching behind
a black standard on which was painted a portrait of the
Saviour on a nimbus of gold.

Dmitri before advancing against the Tartars went
to St Sergius at the Troitsa monastery to ask his
blessing, and was there comforted with a prophecy
of victory. More, Sergius sent two monks, Osliabia
and Peresvet, to encourage the Muscovites. They
wore a cross on their cowls and went into the thick
of the battle. Peresvet was found dead on the field
tightly grasping a Patsinak giant who had slain him.
The armies met at Kulikovo on the Don, where
Dmitri with his 150,000 men after a hard fight
obtained the victory, and Mamai fled. The battle
was really won by the troops of Vladimir and Dmitri
of Volhynia, whose men remained in ambush until the
best moment for attack came.

With historians Dmitri, who, badly wounded, was
found in a swoon after the battle, is the hero of

24

Moscow under the Mongols

the day, and he added the name of Donskoi to
commemorate the victory. Sophronius, a priest of
Riazan, who wrote an epic of the battle, awards chief
honours to the monks, and makes St Sergius, through
them, support the courage of Dmitri at critical stages.

Though Mamai was beaten by Dmitri, he fought
again before he fell into the hands of his rival
Tamerlane, who put him to death. Then Tamerlane
sent an envoy to Dmitri acquainting him with the fact
that their common enemy had been vanquished and
calling upon him and all Russian princes to present them-
selves to him and make their homage to the Horde.

Dmitri failed to comply, and when the Tartars
advanced into his territory he tried to raise an army
to oppose them. The princes who had promised him
support failed to afford it, and Dmitri, unable to get
40,000 men together, was still waiting reinforcements
at Kostroma when the Tartars under Tokhtamysh, a
descendant of Khingis Khan, appeared before the walls
of Moscow.

The defence of the Kremlin was in the hands of
a Lithuanian, Ostei, and the Tartar attack was re-
pulsed ; boiling water being thrown from the towers ;
stones and baulks of timber dropped from the walls
upon the assailants in the ditch. For three days the
Tartars tried to effect an entrance by force. Then
Tokhtamysh stated that it was not with the people
of Moscow the Tartars were at war, but only with
their prince and his companions, inviting those who
had sought refuge in the Kremlin to come out and
occupy their dwellings where they would not be
molested. The besieged believed him, and, laden
with presents and preceded by the clergy, they went
out of the Kremlin to meet the enemy as friends.
The Tartars at once fell upon them, killed Ostei
and the other leaders, and forced a way into the

25

The Story of Moscow

fortress. The defenders were demoralised, " they
cried out like feeble women and tore their hair,
making no attempt even to save themselves. The
Tartars slew without mercy; 24,000 perished. They
broke into the churches and treasuries, pillaged every-
where, and burned a mass of books, papers and
whatever they could not otherwise destroy ; not a
house was left standing save the few built of stone."

After Tokhtamysh withdrew Dmitri returned and
was horrified at the ruin wrought. He is said to
have repented of his victory over the Tartars at
Kulikovo, a barren victory after this desolation, and
to have called out "Our fathers who never triumphed
over Tartars were less unhappy than we."

Moscow was quickly rebuilt. When Dmitri died
in 1389 the principality was the largest and most
thriving of the states in the north-east of Russia.
As the Horde withdrew the "Good companions" from
Novgorod devastated the country round, but Vladimir
and Moscow alike in having a Kremlin on a hill,
were far enough away from the Volga to escape the
attention of these free-booters from the north-west.

Vasili, the son of Dmitri Donskoi, succeeded his
father, and twice saw his territory invaded by the
Horde. In 1392 he bought a larlikh of the Tartars
freeing to him Moscow, Nijni and Suzdal. In 1395,
to escape an inroad of the Tartars, the celebrated ikon
of the Virgin (see Frontispiece) was brought from
Vladimir to Moscow, but the Tartars did not venture
so far. This time they stopped at Eletz-on-the-Don,
pillaged Azov where much Egyptian, Venetian,
Genoese, Biscayan and other merchandise was ware-
housed and returned to Tartary sacking Sarai and
Astrakhan on their way thither.

During these turbulent times Moscow increased in
importance. The two years of peace Dmitri secured
26

Moscow under the Mongols

after his victory at Kulikovo he used to strengthen the
defences. Already, itf/j^Fj?, he had substituted a
wall of masonry for the old wood rampart round the
Kremlin ; now handsome gates with towers were
added. Its finest church at this period was that of
the Transfiguration, more usually styled " Spass na
Boru," which, built in stone in 1330, had been con-
siderably enlarged and a monastery attached ; there
were the cells in or near the church building, vaults
below it for secreting treasure, a hospital for the
infirm, and a cemetery for the princes, but their
tombs were subsequently transferred to the Arch-
angelski Sobor.

Within the Kremlin, or near by, were the monasteries
of Chudof (Miracles), Vossnesenski (Ascension),
Bogoyavlenni (Epiphany), Rojdestvenski (Nativity),
St Alexis, St Peter the Apostle, of Daniel, Simon,
and Spasso-Preobrajenni (the Transfiguration). To
commemorate the withdrawal of Tamerlane, Vasili
founded the monastery of the Sretenka (Meeting).
He made a fosse across the town from the field of
Kuchko to the river Moskva, and later surrounded the
town with a stone wall.

A strong place now ; the lesser nobles, cadets of the
house of Rurik, took up their residence in Moscow
and shared its fortune.

In 1408 the Lithuanians aided by the Tartars laid
siege to Moscow, a siege which is memorable from the
fact that cannons were then first used in its defence,
though Mamai had brought Genoese gunners against
Dmitri twenty years earlier. Ediger led the assault,
and, though his forces had to retreat, the boyards of
Moscow paid to him 3000 roubles as a war indemnity ;
the Monastery of St Sergius at Troitsa was burned, the
surrounding country pillaged and the peasants ruthlessly
slaughtered.

The Story of Moscow

It cannot be said that the first Vasili did much for
Moscow. He was in retreat at Kostroma when the
inhabitants of the town, led by " Vladimir the Brave,"
successfully defended it ; both pestilence and famine
were frequent during his reign of thirty-six years, and
at his death the succession was disputed.

In 1431 Yuri attempted to revert to the ancient
custom of succession of the eldest, and claimed the
throne from Vasili II., the son of Vasili I. To avoid
war it was agreed to refer the matter to the Horde
for settlement. Vsevoloshski, a boyard of Moscow,
advanced the most potent argument on behalf of Vasili.
"My Lord Tsar," he said to Ulu Mahomet, "let me
speak, me, the slave of the Grand Prince. My master
prays for the throne, which is thy property, having no
other title but thy protection, thy investiture and thy
iarlikh. Thou art master and can dispose of it at thy
pleasure. My lord, the Prince Yuri Dmitrovich, my
master's uncle, claims the throne of the Grand Prince
by the act and will of his father, but not as a favour
from the all powerful." This flattery had a suitable
reward ; the Khan appointed Vasili to the throne, and
ordered Yuri to lead his nephew's horse by the bridle.

Vasili II. was crowned at Moscow, not at Vladimir,
and the supremacy of Moscow was admitted. Vasili
was to have married a daughter of Vsevoloshski, but
instead married a grand-daughter of Vladimir the
Brave, the defender of Moscow. The offended
boyard went over to the side of Yuri and fanned
his resentment. Yuri's two sons, Vasili, the squint-
eyed, and Chemiaki were present at the marriage
festivities of Vasili, whose mother, the Princess
Sophia, seeing round the waist of the young Vasili
a belt of gold that had belonged to Dmitri Donskoi,
there and then seized it from him. The brothers
took umbrage at this open affront; forthwith they
28

29

Moscow under the Mongols

left Moscow and induced their father to take up
arms.

At Kostroma, Vasili II. fell into the power of Yuri,
who spared his life and gave him Kostroma as an
appanage, betaking himself to Moscow. Thereupon the
inhabitants of Moscow deserted the town and took up
residence with their prince in Kostroma. Owing to
the popularity of Vasili II., Yuri was powerless and
sent to him at Kostroma inviting him to return to his
own. On his return the people crowded round him
" like bees round their queen." Later, Vasili, the squint-
eyed, fell into the hands of Vasili II., who had his
eyes put out ; then at once repenting the act, set free
his brother Chemiaki, and war again broke out between
them. Chemiaki with a host of free lances "good
companions " and such men as he could get together
besieged Moscow. Then in came the Tartar horde
and Vasili could get but 1 5,000 men together to oppose
them. He made a valiant struggle, but, wounded in
fifteen places, he was taken prisoner to Kazan.

Moscow was in despair: Tver insulted her and
Chemiaki intrigued to get himself made prince. Then
the Khan suddenly agreed to liberate Vasili II. for a
small ransom, and soon the prince was in his capital
again. He went forthwith to Troitsa to return thanks
for his escape. During his absence, Chemiaki surprised
the Kremlin and there captured the wife and mother
of Vasili and took all the treasure. Hurrying after
Vasili to Troitsa, he made him prisoner, brought him
back to Moscow, and in 1446 put out his eyes in
revenge for the like act upon his brother Vasili.
Chemiaki, some time afterwards, left Moscow to go
against the Tartars ; the town revolted during his
absence and Vasili was once more restored to the
throne, which as " Vasili the Blind " he held until
his death in 1462.

3 1

The Story of Moscow

It is not easy to account for the popularity of Vasili
II. ; possibly the detestation in which Chemiaki was
held made the mild virtues of Vasili more prominent ;
for in the language of the people, a "judgment of
Chemiaki " is, proverbially, tantamount to a crying
wrong.

Events outside Russia strengthened the supremacy
of Moscow. At the Council of Florence (1439)
Pope Eugene suggested the union of the eastern and
western churches, and amongst the many representatives
of the eastern church present Isidor, the metro-
politan of Moscow, agreed to the proposal and signed
the act of union. How Mark, Bishop of Ephesus,
protested, and at last carried the Greeks with him in
repudiating the union, is no part of this history. Isidor
having accepted, introduced the Latin cross, made use
of the name of the Pope in the services and so
astonished the Russians that Vasili interfered. He
reproached Isidor for his bad faith, and in dismay the
prelate fled to Rome. In 1453 Mahomet II. entered
Constantinople. There was no longer a Christian
emperor of the east, and Moscow became the heir of
Constantinople and the metropolis of orthodoxy.
Ivan, the artist-monk of Constantinople, brought to
Moscow such of the holy relics as he could save,
and, what is more, by his own genius impressed upon
the Muscovite priesthood a love of culture to which
Moscow had hitherto been a stranger.

Ivan III., styled "The Uniter of Russia," was
twenty-two years of age when, in 1462, he succeeded
his father Vasili, the Blind. He continued the policy
of the princes of Moscow and early obtained a success
against the Tartars of Kazan. In 1472 he married
Sophia, a daughter of Thomas Paleologus, a brother of
the last emperor of Byzantium, and this union, with
a member of the race that had so long held sway over

32

Moscow under the Mongols

all orthodox Christianity, greatly influenced his policy.
His wife, less patient than the Russians, found the
Mongol yoke unbearable. " How long am I to be
the slave of Tartars ? " she would ask, and there is
little doubt that it is to her urging that Ivan became
aggressive. He was not personally courageous, pre-
ferring to remain in Moscow, and allow his people to
fight on the frontiers of Russia ; when forced into the
field, his method was to avoid giving battle and wear
out the enemy with delays, retreats, and puzzling,
irritating marches and counter-marches.

In 1472 he conquered Perm; in 1475 ^ e was
successful against Novgorod the Great; in 1478 he
openly rebelled against the Khan ; in 1 499 he pushed
the confines of Russia to Petchora on the Arctic Sea.
He was a puzzle to his enemies, gaining victories over
Lithuanians, Livonians and Siberians, without leaving
the Kremlin. Stephen of Moldavia said of him,
" Ivan is a strange man ; he stays quietly at home yet
triumphs over his enemies, whilst 1, although always
on horseback, cannot defend my own country."

Born a despot he was initiated into the mysteries
of autocratic government by his wife. Cold, cruel and
cunning, he brooked no opposition where he thought
he could triumph ; was an arrant coward whenever the
issue was doubtful.

When he vanquished Novgorod, he brought the
boyards to Moscow, and settled them there ; three
years later he tortured some, and put others to death.
He was relentless in punishing rebellion, no matter
what the rank of the offender. He whipped Prince
Oukhtomski, and ordered the archimandrite of a
monastery to be flogged ; mutilated the counsellors
of his son, cowed the boyards, burnt alive Poles
who had conspired against him ; pillaged the German
traders of goods to the value of ^40,000, and played

c 33

The Story of Moscow

the tyrant so thoroughly that even when he slept no
boyard " durst open his mouth in whispers " for fear
of disturbing his master's slumber.

Towards the Great Horde he was both respectful
and recalcitrant. He repulsed the invasions of ad-
venturers into his territory ; avoided the payment of
tribute by sending costly presents regularly. But in
1478, when Khan Akhmet sent envoys with his
image to receive tribute, Ivan openly rebelled ; put all
the messengers to death, save one ; trampled the image
of the Khan under foot, spat on the edict, and allowed
this news to reach the Khan. When the enraged
Tartars advanced towards Moscow, Ivan wished to
remain in the city, but the inhabitants would have no
shirking. " What ! he has overtaxed us, refused to
pay tribute to the Horde, and now that he has enraged
the Khan, though he does not want to fight, he must
and shall." Ivan journeyed about from one town
to another, returning to Moscow on various pretexts.
He wished to consult the clergy, the boyards, his
mother, anybody. The answer was always the same,
'* March against the enemy ! " Forced to go South,
he wished to send his son back to Moscow, but the
young Ivan disobeyed.

Archbishop Vassian urged Ivan to go to the front.
" Is it part of mortals to fear death ? We cannot
escape destiny ; a good shepherd will, at need, lay down
his life for his flock." But this prompting did not
suffice. Vassian at last lost patience, wrote a bellicose
letter to Ivan, recounting the deeds of his heroic
ancestors, from Igor Sviatoslaf to Dmitri Donskoi.
Ivan assured him that this letter " filled his heart with
joy, himself with courage and strength " ; but another
fortnight passed, and Ivan had not advanced a step.

When at last the two armies came within sight of
each other, the streams Oogra and Oka separated them.

34

Moscow under the Mongols

They insulted each other bravely across the water, but
not daring to ford, waited until the river should be
frozen. When this happened, Ivan at once gave
orders for his forces to withdraw. Seeing the army
in motion an inexplicable panic seized the Tartars, and
they hastened away. Both armies were in flight, and
no one pursuing. In such pitiful fashion did the
Mongol supremacy terminate. For more than three
centuries Moscow had acknowledged the rule of the
Golden Horde, now a thoroughly demoralised rabble.
The remnants in their flight south were opposed by
the Nogay and Krim Tartars, and defeated. The
Khan Akhmet was then put to death by his own men.

Ivan next sent his voievodes or " war-leaders "
against Kazan; in 1487 they took it and made
Alegam, its commander, a prisoner. In his boyhood
Ivan had been imprisoned in Kazan by his Tartar
enemies, and so now was able to turn the tables on
them completely.

His next act exemplifies his statesmanship. Instead
of annexing Kazan to Moscow he gave the crown to
the nephew of his powerful ally, the Khan of the
Krim Tartars. This Khan could not ask for the
release of Alegam, because he was an enemy of his
own nephew, the newly installed ruler of Kazan ; but
the leaders of the Khivan and Nogay Tartars, who
were related to him, felt that Islam had been wronged,
and despatched an envoy to Moscow praying for
Alegam's release. Ivan declined, but did so graciously,
and gave no offence. He made the envoys presents,
and sent to their leaders other presents, much foreign
cloth and trinkets for their wives, whom he styled his
sisters. Ivan did not treat directly with the envoys,
making use of the western method of conducting
negotiations through an officer of his court.

Ivan took the two-headed eagle as the arms of his

35

country. Its early form is still to be seen on the wall
of Granovitaia palace in the Kremlin. The device of
St George and the Dragon, which Yuri Dolgoruki
the founder of Moscow used, was from this time more
closely associated with the city of Moscow, and the
eagle taken as the arms of the ruler.

When it became necessary for Ivan to appoint his
successor he hesitated, and at last made choice of
Dmitri, the son of Ivan, his eldest child, then dead.
His wife advanced the claims of her own son Vasili ;
his daughter-in-law, Ivan's widow, her own son.
Having proclaimed Dmitri heir, he threw Vasili into
prison and degraded his wife ; then he changed his
mind, imprisoned his daughter-in-law and grandson,
and proclaimed Vasili his heir. In 1505 he died,
and Vasili was at once crowned ruler of Moscow.

36

CHAPTER IV
Moscow of the Princes

" As pearls thy thousand crowns appear,
Thy hands a diamond sceptre hold,
Thy domes, thy steeples, bright and clear
Seem sunny rays in eastern gold." DMITRIEV.

WASILI III. succeeded his father and reigned in
Moscow for nearly thirty years. From the
historical point of view, he is unfortunate, as he followed
a sovereign recognised as "Great," whose conquests
and innovations changed the destiny of Moscow, and
was succeeded by a ruler, who, by his barbarities, won
for himself the surname of "Terrible." Vasili III.
was not a warrior, and when he made war it was by
preference against Slavonic peoples in the west. His
chief delight was in building : churches, monasteries,
city-walls, palaces none of these came amiss to him ;
he constructed some of all, leaving Moscow much
stronger, richer and more beautiful than he found it.
He made the most of such services as the Italian
masters could render, but in those times, all tfiat was
done in Moscow in any one age appears to have been
executed at the command of the reigning prince. The
houses of the nobility have all disappeared, and to the
date of Vasili III. there appear to have been no founders
of churches in Moscow, other than the princes. Not
that these necessarily found the labour or material ; as
often as not a church was built from the proceeds of a

37

The Story of Moscow

fine laid upon some town or government at the pleasure
of the prince.

Vasili was the first to build a stone palace in the
Kremlin, that known as the Granovitaia, which is
still standing. But Herberstein wrote that Vasili would
not live in it, preferring his old palace of wood.

During his reign the Tartars got as near Moscow as
the Sparrow Hills ; there they sacked the royal palace
and cellars containing large stores of mead. They
became intoxicated with the liquor and advanced no
further, but the leader obtained from Vasili a treaty in
which he acknowledged the sovereignty of the Horde
and promised yearly tribute. Vasili's voievodes at
Riazan, thinking the terms shameful, intercepted the
returning Tartars, routed them, and got back the treaty.
The following year, goaded to action, Vasili got an
army together and went out towards the Khan, challeng-
ing him to battle. The Khan answered that he knew
the way into Russia, and was not in the habit of asking
his enemies when he should fight. In revenge for this
insult, Vasili established a fair at Makharief, on the
Volga ; it ruined the mart of Kazan and was subse-
quently moved to Nijni- Novgorod, where it is still
held yearly.

Vasili married first, Solomonia Sa*burov, but, as after
twenty years of married life she had no son, he forced
her to take the veil and married Helena Glinski, of
Lithuania. This gave great offence to the Church ;
when he sent specially to the highest authority on
the technical question, Mark, Patriarch of Jerusalem,
is reported to have made the following remarkable
prediction :

11 Shouldst thou contract a second marriage thou shalt
have a wicked son ; thy states shall become a prey to terrors
and tears; riversof blood shall flow; the heads of the mighty
shall fall ; thy cities shall be devoured by flames."

38

Moscow of the Princes

Vasili disregarded the decision of the Church and
married a most able and enlightened woman, who had
the foresight to surround the Kitai Gorod with a wall
of good masonry, and it is said, named that part of the
town after a similarly designated enclosure in her native
place. She bore Vasili two sons, Ivan, the Tsarevich,

KITAI GOROD, U.YINKA GATE

who was later the "terrible " Tsar, succeeding to the
throne in 1533, when but three years of age. The
younger son, Yuri, fared badly at the hands of his
cruel brother.

The Moscow of the Princes was of wood, and the

39

The Story of Moscow

vestiges remaining are unimportant. Some of the later
buildings, as the palace of the Terem and towers of
the Kremlin wall, have been built in the style of the
wooden erections they replaced ; but it is not easy to
picture Moscow as it was before Ivan's Italian work-
men raised their walls of brick and stone.

The town was of great size ; in 1520 it contained
41,500 dwellings and 100,000 inhabitants. Its cir-
cumference was nearly twelve miles. The Grand
Prince and his relations lived in the Kremlin ; so did
a few of the richest and most powerful nobles. In the
Kitai Gorod lived the traders, the wealthy boyards
and foreigners. The Bielo Gorod, " White " or
Free Town, was occupied by boyards, merchants and
privileged citizens ; in the outer ring lived the artisans
and labourers. The churches and chapels were
numerous. Ivan Kalita built ten when there were
already eighteen in the town, in 1337 ; in the reign
of Vasili III. there were as many monasteries and
nunneries, and upwards of three score churches and
chapels.

The first dwelling in the Kremlin was the Prince's
habitation, originally called the Prince's apartment,
which served only as a pied a terre for the Prince
when passing through. When Moscow became a
place of residence then a house was put up near
where the Great Palace now is. Then followed the
usual dependences ; including a prison or dungeon.
Even at that early date the Russian carpenters were
able craftsmen ; how expert they afterwards became
the wonderful wooden palaces and churches of Russia
accurately demonstrate.

The Princes of Moscow were not extravagant, their

palaces consisting of four chambers, en suite the one

most distant from the entrance was the sleeping-room ;

then, adjoining it, the oratory or private chapel ; the

40

Moscow of the Princes

room for living or affairs of the town, the anti-
chamber ; the vestibule ; add kitchens and domestic
rooms on a lower floor, and the early palaces of the
Russian princes is complete.

Vasili III. required no more; his palace in the
Kremlin consisted, on the bel etage, of the vestibule,
an anti-chamber, and two rooms. In a separate
building, reached by a corridor or covered staircase,
the bathroom and storerooms. Above the bel etqge,
either a large open loft, or a belvedere pierced with
windows on all sides and communicating with the
terrace. The apartments reserved for the children,
and for relations of the sovereign, were in separate
buildings offering similar accommodation.

The roof was invariably ornamented with carved
wood-work and with gay colours. The distinctive
colour for the windows of the Terem was red.
Further ornamentation consisted in shaping the roof
conical, making it arched or in superposing cones on
two arches ; these were furnished with small grills
and covered with shingles.

Each house had its private chapel, so the agglomera-
tion of connected buildings that constituted a palace
in the Kremlin in old days contained many ^chapels,
and they now number more than a dozen. Apart
from these private chapels within the palace, the
Princes used the churches for the safer keeping of
their treasure.

Ivan III. used the Church of St Lazarus now in
the palace for his treasury ; his wife, the Church of
St John the Baptist, near the Borovitski Gate. To
steal from the church was sacrilege, to take from the
house of even the Tsar, simply robbery. The churches
were used as treasuries also by the nobles, and doubt-
less much of the church-plate throughout Russia was
originally deposited for safe keeping, whilst the owners

41

The Story of Moscow

went against Tartars or Livonians. All the churches
were rich, and all, time after time, were spoiled by
invaders ; thus hiding-places were made in or near
all the old churches.

Near the residence of the ruler were the very
similar dwellings of the minor princes. In the days
of Vasili III., of Grand Dukes even, for, as Moscow
conquered other principalities, their former rulers were
brought to the Kremlin and lived under the sur-
veillance of the " Grand Prince of all the Russias,"
rendering him such military service as he demanded.
In time these nobles became an element of danger,
intriguing for the succession and quarrelling among
themselves for precedence. Vasili III. was the first
ruler to treat them harshly and he spared none, not
even his own near relatives if he thought they aspired
to the succession. To render them less dangerous
they were not employed as war-leaders, men of lower
rank, the drujni of the Tsar and other princes being
entrusted with command in the field and acting also
as governors of provinces. Burned down time after
time and usually put up again in wood, Moscow, with
all its conflagrations, was nearly three centuries before
it contained a dwelling-house of brick or stone, and
more than two before enclosed with a wall. The
reason being that stones of any kind were scarce in
the neighbourhood of Moscow, whilst wood was
plentiful.

With a palace in the Kremlin the rulers soon set
to work to have palaces elsewhere. The one at the
Sparrow Hills seems to have been most often resorted
to in the early days, but with the advent to Russia
of Sophia Paleologus and the introduction of western
customs, not only was the single palace found in-
adequate, but Ivan's successors all built dwellings
in the forest or in villages near Moscow where they
42

Moscow of the Princes

could go for sport, or when driven from town by
fire, pestilence or revolt.

The most pressing need of the rulers of Moscow
when they entered into relations with the west was a
hall for entertaining visitors. It was for this purpose
that the Granovitaia (chequered) Palace was constructed
by the Italian workmen Ivan induced to work in
Moscow for the then high wages of ten roubles a month.
It was at this period that the Tsars began to evolve a
special court etiquette. Previously anyone who could
force his way through the throng by whom the princes
were surrounded might speak with them. From the
first the court etiquette, though not elaborate, was
firmly insisted upon. Those who came to the palace
had to dismount at some distance from the grand
entrance, and approach it on foot. This accounts for
the joy of Bowes, the English envoy, who rode right
up to the grand entrance before dismounting. Those
officers sent to meet foreign envoys had orders not to
be the first to dismount ; if the envoy knew the etiquette
the parties on meeting would sit for hours facing each
other, then agree to dismount simultaneously. Herber-
stein held back after throwing his feet out of the stirrups,
so was last to touch earth, and he counts this a gain to
his master. Common people and lower nobles were
not allowed to pass the Tsar's residence covered, and
" must uncover as soon as it is within view."

" The city is built of wood and tolerably large, and at a
distance appears larger than it really is, for the gardens and
spacious courtyards in every house make a great addition to
the size of the town, which is again greatly increased by the
houses of the smiths and other artificers who use fires. These
houses extend in a long row at the end of the city, interspersed
with fields and meadows. Moreover not far from the city are
some small houses, and the other side of the river some villas
where, a few years ago, the Tsar built a new city for his
courtiers, who had the privilege of the Tsar to drink at all

43

The Story of Moscow

seasons, which was forbidden to most, who were free to drink
only at Eastertide and Christmas. For that reason the Nali,
or drinkers, separated themselves from intercourse with the
rest of the inhabitants to avoid corrupting them by their mode
of living. Not far from the city are some monasteries, which
of themselves appear like a great city to persons viewing them
from a distance." Berber stein.

In addition to the gilded domes of its cathedrals, and
the bright red roofs of its palaces, during the reign of
Vasili III. Moscow commenced to accumulate other
ornamental work quite as wondrous to the pilgrims from
other Russian towns. Aleviso of Florence is unusually
credited with the work upon the doors and lintels of
the old churches within the palace, the porches of the
Vossnesenski, Blagovieshchenski, and other Cathedrals
within the Kremlin. The gilded and embossed metal
work of the doors, the carved and bright-coloured
columns and lintels, impressed visitors with the wealth
of Moscow since the precious metals were so lavishly
employed for merely decorative purposes. There are
not many specimens of the work of this period still in
existence, such as remain are now for the most part
preserved within the palace instead of being, as formerly,
exposed to the weather ; but practically the whole of
the wooden Moscow of the Princes was destroyed by
fires during the reign of Ivan IV.

44

-w.

TEREM ENTRANCE TO CHAPEL OF ST LAZARUS

45

CHAPTER V
Ivan the Terrible

u A right Scythian, full of readie wisdom, cruell, bloudye,
mercilesse. " Honey .

XAOST conspicuous of all the monuments of the
past Moscow contains, is the great weird building
familiarly known as the church of Vasili Blajenni ; as
monstrous and impressive is the era that produced it.
The half century during which Ivan the Terrible
reigned over Muscovy is a unique period in the history
of Russia. And not that of Russia only, for in no
country at any time have so many and diverse outrages
been perpetrated at one man's command. Disasters
resulting from human ambition and folly sully the
history of every land, but all histories are spotless in
comparison with that of Moscow under its first Tsar
a creature of unparalleled ferocity and inconceivable
wickedness.

Ivan was the son of the crafty Vasili Ivanovich in
his dotage ; of Helena Glinski, a ficry-natured Lithu-
anian woman, passionate as a Spaniard, reckless as a
Tartar. But if his parentage was unpromising his
upbringing was worse. He and his mother had many
enemies, the members of princely houses in vassalage
in Moscow but with aspirations to the throne. These
men, mostly relations of the Tsar, were insistent upon
the rules of precedence, both for the gratification of
their own vanity, and as of possible importance in the

47

The Story of Moscow

event of a Tsar dying without direct heir. For this
reason all the Tsars were merciless towards their
relatives on their father's side, and looked for help
from the relations of their mother and wife, who had
most to gain from the succession being maintained in a
direct line.

Helena, as regent, appears to have governed well.
She did not marry again, thus the rights of Ivan and
his brother Yuri were not endangered by her. Her
lover, Kniaz Telepniev, for a time kept at bay the
rival factions of the more powerful nobles, and possibly
was instrumental in thwarting the plots of the Glinski.
At Helena's command two of her relatives were exe-
cuted for conspiring against the infant Tsar. She
enclosed the Kitai Gorod with a wall of stone ; im-
proved the defences of Moscow in other ways, gave
the people a new coinage, founded monasteries, built
churches, and continued the policy of the rulers of
Moscow. Five years after her husband's death she died
suddenly, of poison it is said, and the rumour may be
credited.

In 1538, Ivan, then in his eighth year, and his
brother Yuri, his junior by eighteen months, were left
to the mercies of the most powerful factions about the
court. They were neglected ; Ivan himself said of
this period, " we two were treated as strangers : even
as the children of beggars are served. We were ill
clothed, cold, and often went hungry."

Jealous of each other the courtiers would not allow
the princes to attach themselves to anyone. If Ivan
felt drawn to anyone, or any person took notice of him,
all the others combined to separate the two.

The Shooiskis were then the most powerful family,
and Shooiski treated Ivan with scant consideration.
His tutors encouraged him to ride at full speed through
the streets and try to knock down the old and feeble ;

48

Ivan the 'Terrible

they allowed him to have 'animals tortured for his
diversion, and laughed with him at their plight when
flung from the roof of the palace. Ivan learned to
read, and spelled through all the books he could
obtain. From these old chronicles, from those of
the Kings of Israel, to the doings of his own ancestors
he seems to have obtained the idea of the powers of
sovereignty. A close observer he noticed that although
ordinarily he was treated as of little account, when any
act of state had to be done he was always summoned
to give the command. Young as he was, Ivan knew
his importance. One day, when he was thirteen years
old, he went out sporting with Gluiski, and GJuiski
incited him to repress the arrogance of Shooiski. Ivan
did it by having Shooiski pulled out into the street and
worried to death there and then by Gluiski's hounds.

From that time Ivan treated all with cruelty. In
his eighteenth year he arrogated to himself the title of
Tsar the name by which all great rulers were desig-
nated in the old Slavonic books he had read. In the
same year, 1 547, he married Anastasia Romanof, and
in that year the inhabitants of Moscow, tired of his
cruelties, repeatedly fired the town. In April the
merchants' stores were fired, probably by robbers intent
upon gain ; the fire spread, destroying the stores of the
Tsar, the monastery of the Epiphany, and most of the
houses in the Kitai Gorod. On the 2Oth of the
same month the streets of the artisans along the Yauza
suffered, and on the 2ist June, during a high wind,
a fire started on the far side of the Neglinnaia, in the
Arbat, and this spread to the Kremlin and destroyed
there the whole of the wooden buildings. The in-
habitants could save nothing, and the night was made
more hideous by frequent explosions as the fire reached
one powder magazine and another. The palaces, the
tribunals, the treasuries, armouries, warehouses, all were
D 49

The Story of Moscow

destroyed. All books, deeds, pictures and ikons were
lost, with few exceptions. The metropolitan, the aged
Macarius, was praying in the cathedral and refused to
leave ; he was forcibly removed, placed in a basket
and lowered from the Kremlin wall near the Tainitski
gate ; the rope broke, he fell to the ground, and was
taken more dead than alive to the Novo Spasski
Monastery. There was not time to remove the Holy
ikons. The fire after destroying the roof of the
cathedral burnt out, and the celebrated ikon of the
Virgin of Vladimir was saved.

The ruins smouldered for a week. Seventeen
hundred perished in the flames. The Tsar withdrew
to the Sparrow Hills so as not to see the distress of
the people. The survivors, their beards burnt, their
faces blackened, fought among the embers for the
vestiges of what had been theirs. Church and court
alike forsook the spot.

An earnest priest, Sylvester, forced himself upon the
terrified Tsar, upbraided him for his excesses, and
exhorted him to lead a better life. Ivan, always an
arrant coward, now completely unnerved, at once came
under the influence of the priest. He took as his
counsellor one Adashef, a man of good repute and
some wisdom. For thirteen years he and Sylvester
administered the law and dictated the policy of the
country. In Anastasia they had an able assistant and
firm friend. Their first act was directed towards
limiting the power of the Tsar; at their behest he
called together an assembly of the people to advise
him. They compiled a code of laws, the Sudebnik,
and the Stoglaf, this last the decrees of the council
(Zemstvo) held at Moscow in 1551, and shortly
afterwards Sylvester issued his " Domostroi " house-
hold law, teaching how to live as Godfearing men and
prove good husbandmen. The Tsar, earnest in his

5

Ivan the Terrible

new role, paid great attention to his spiritual advisers.
When twenty-one he exhorted them to " Thunder
in mine ears the voice of God that my soul may
live."

In 1552 he was persuaded to lead an expedition
against the Tartars of Kazan. The army was strong
and well equipped. With wonderful foresight, a
neighbouring town had been well stocked with pro-
visions and was used as a base for the besiegers.
After a stubborn resistance Ivan's army of 150,000
took the town, and slaughtered the defenders. On
this occasion Ivan is said to have displayed consider-
able courage, and when he saw the bodies of the
slain Tartars, to have regretted their death, saying,
*' for though of another faith they are human beings
even as ourselves."

Too soon he returned to Moscow, and the newly-
conquered province rebelled. Ivan then was very
ill, " a fever so great all thought him at the point
of death." Ivan thought his last hour was at hand
and summoned the nobles to take the oath of fealty
to his son Dmitri, whom he nominated his successor.
Some refused, others hesitated : Zakharin- Yurief alone,
was earnest and ready in his allegiance. He was a
near kinsman of the Tsarina and so, more than any,
was interested in the welfare of Dmitri. Others
intrigued for the succession. The Tsar lying helpless
on his couch heard the boyards and counsellors dis-
cussing their plans in the adjoining apartment. Even
Sylvester and his trusted counsellor Alexis Adashef,
favoured the succession of Vladimir, Ivan's cousin.

Ivan recovered, but for a time he acted as though
he had forgotten what he overheard on his sick bed.
He never forgave. His wife, Anastasia, also with-
drew her friendship from those who had opposed her
son's succession.

'The Story of Moscow

Then Ivan made a visit to the monastery at Bielo
Ozersk the White Lake and there he saw the
aged Vassian, the old counsellor of his father, who
gave him advice contrary to that so earnestly and
frequently dinned into his ears by Sylvester and
Adashef. " If you wish to become absolute mon-
arch," said Vassian, " seek no counsellor wiser than
yourself. Never take advice from any : instead, give
it. Command, never obey. Then will you become
a sovereign in all truth."

This advice pleased Ivan. " My father himself,"
he answered, "could not have given wiser counsel."

Ivan could wait for his triumph over his associates.
He went now to the Volga again, completed the
conquest of Kazan, and his troops pressed on as far
as Astrakhan, which they took after slight resistance.

In Moscow Ivan kept the grand-dukes, princes,
and boyards his nearest relatives ; his voievodes, or
military leaders, were men of good birth, but with no
claim on the succession. Under the administration
of Adashef, the outlying parts of the Tsar's dominions
were so effectually governed that when the English
ships first appeared on the White Sea, Chancellor was
not allowed to trade, or penetrate into the interior
of the country, until the permission of the Tsar had
been received from Moscow.

In 1 560 Anastasia died, and Ivan fretted under the
constant surveillance of Sylvester. He was always at
hand, entreating the Tsar to shew mercy, and to live
straightly. Both Sylvester and Adashef retired within
a short time of Anastasia's death. For bad general-
ship in Lithuania, Adashef was imprisoned in the
fortress of Dorpat, where he died shortly afterwards.
Sylvester was ready enough to send the Tsar and his
Russian armies to war against the Tartars and infidels ;
he opposed wars with Livonia, Lithuania and Poland,

5*

Ivan the terrible

where Ivan was particularly desirous of extending his
dominion.

On the withdrawal of these counsellors again com-
menced the murders and massacres in which Ivan de-
lighted. Historians divide these into seven cycles ;
it is a purely arbitrary division with the exception
of the thirteen years 1547-1560, during which he
was wedded to Anastasia and engaged in foreign wars,
the whole of his long reign was given to terrorising
his subjects.

Obolenski was the first noble killed by Ivan him-
self; Repnin was murdered whilst at his devotions
in church ; another was slain simply because he re-
monstrated with the Tsar for such a display of cruelty.
Ivan always used the hour of victory to exterminate
foes, and he now relentlessly hunted down all his
past advisers and their friends.

He was determined on absolute supremacy.

" To shew his soveraintie over the lives of his subjects, Ivan
in his walks, if he disliked the face or person of any man he
met by the way, or that looked at him, would command his
head to be struck off. There and then the thing was done,
and the head cast before him."

Dismajed, some of his nobles fled to the west ;
among them was Kniaz Kourbski, who, not content
simply to take service under Sigismund, acquainted
the Tsar by letter with the fact. Kniaz Vasili
Chibanov was the bearer. Ivan received him on the
Krasnce Kriltso, and there, with his sharp staff, pinned
to the floor the foot of Chibanov, who never stirred a
muscle during the whole time the long letter was read
aloud. Then Chibanov was put to the torture, to
obtain particulars of the flight of Kourbski, and the
names of his partisans in Moscow ; but Chibanov con-
fessed not a word, and in the midst of the most horrible

53

The Story of Moscow

torment praised his master, and counted it a joy to
suffer thus for him.

Generally Ivan studied to keep on good terms with
the common people whom he feared; by them he
was worshipped. Macarius, the metropolitan, com-
plained that " He who blasphemes his maker, meets
with forgiveness amongst men, he who reviles the
Tsar is sure to lose his head." Ivan chose as his
companions the worst people whom he could find. At
one time he withdrew from Moscow, taking umbrage
at the prelates, still too powerful to be touched. The
people clamoured for his return.

"The Tsar has forsaken us: we are lost, who will now
defend us against the enemy? What are sheep without the
shepherd ? Let him punish all who deserve it : has he not
the power over life and death ? The state cannot endure
without its head, and we will not acknowledge any other
than he whom God has given us."

This was gratifying to Ivan. He consented to
govern again if the Church would not exercise its
prerogative of mercy, and would leave him to do his
will. His return was followed by murders and out-
rages worse than before. Randolph, who in 1568,
was in Muscovy on an embassy from England, with
which country Ivan wished to be on the best of terms,
was not allowed to enter Moscow, because, Count
Yuri Tolstoi thinks, Ivan wished to keep from him
the knowledge of these massacres. Randolph wrote
to Cecil :

" Of the Tsar's condition I have learned that of late he hath
beheaded no small number of his nobility, causing their heads
to be laid on the streets, to see who durst behold them or
lament their deaths. The Chancellor he caused to be executed
openly, leaving neither wife, children, nor brother alive.
Divers others have been cut to pieces by his command."

During the third cycle of Ivan's outrages, Philip,
54

Ivan the Terrible

the metropolitan, in 1 568, dared to upbraid the Tsar.
Ivan with a crowd of his irreligious followers, disguised
in the cloaks they wore when sallying forth to rapine
and outrage, repaired to the Uspenski Sober for a
blessing before starting on their fearful work. The
metropolitan refused to recognise Ivan so clad when
called upon for his benediction.

" What is the thing thou hast done then, O Tsar, that thou
shouldst put off from thee the form of thine honour? Fear
the judgment of God, to whom we are here making a pure
sacrifice. Behind the altar the innocent blood of Christian
men is made to flow by thee! Among pagans, in the country
of the infidel, are laws, and justice, and compassion 'shown to
men, but in Russia now is nothing of this kind. The lives
and goods of citizens are without defence. Everywhere
pillage, on all sides murder, and each and all these crimes are
committed in the name of the Tsar. There is a judge on
high how shall you present yourself before that Tribunal?
Dare you appear there covered with the blood of innocents, deaf
to their cries of pain ? Even the very stones beneath your feet
cry aloud to heaven for vengeance on such black deeds as are
done here. O Prince, I speak to thee as the shepherd, fearing
none but the Lord our God."

Ivan enraged, stuck his staff into the ground, and
swore to be as bad as Philip described him. Vasili
Pronski was the first to suffer in the murders that
followed closely upon this scene, but Ivan did not
forget Philip. One of the soldiers was ordered to
present himself before the metropolitan and wear the
Tartar skull cap ; the metropolitan noticed this
irreverence, and turned to the leader for a command
that the man should uncover. In the meantime the
man did so, and Philip was accused of lying. The
boyard, Alexis Basmanov, with a troop of armed men
and having the Tsar's jkrt in his hand, arrested Philip
whilst officiating at High Mass in the Uspenski Sobor,
and read out that by the decree of the clergy, Philip
was deposed from his high office. The people were

55

The Story of Moscow

surprised and stupefied. The soldiers seized Philip,
tore his vestments from him, and chased him from the
church with besoms. He was first taken to the monas-
tery of the Epiphany, next to an obscure prison where
he was loaded with irons. Whilst there, the head of
his well-beloved nephew, Ivan Borisovich, was thrown
to him. A crowd gathered near the prisoner's cell, and
the people spake with each other of his goodness. It
frightened Ivan, and he had Philip removed to the
monastery at Tver, where he was subsequently strangled
by Skutarov on the Tsar's journey through the town
on the way to Novgorod.

As a condition for his consent to reside in Moscow,
Ivan stipulated for a bodyguard of his own choosing.
These men, the opritchniki, that is, ** picked " fellows,
became the terror of Moscow. Selected for their
readiness to obey, their bodily strength and lack of
morals, they recognised no master but Ivan, and by
him were privileged to rob and slay the people as
they wished, providing they were at hand to kill
anyone in particular whom he might want out of the
way. They carried bludgeons with heads carved to
represent those of dogs, at the saddle bow, and a
small besom at the other end, the " speaking symbols "
of their intention to hunt down rebels and sweep
Russia clean.

By their callousness and brutality they, on many
occasions, distinguished themselves in a manner that
gladdened Ivan, but at no time did their excesses excel
their performance on the march to Novgorod. Ivan,
very suspicious of treason, doubted the fidelity of
Novgorod, a town with known predilections for
freedom, and inclined to favour the more enlightened
rule of the western kings than the Russian autocrat.
A hired traitor placed a forged letter behind an image
in Novgorod Church, and disclosed the plot to Ivan,

56

Ivan the Terrible

whose agents found the compromising letter, which
contained overtures to the Lithuanians ; Ivan started
to subdue the town. The 6'pritchniks preceded him.
Klin, a thriving town near Moscow, was sacked ; the
inhabitants of Tver were spoiled, and many murdered.
On their way the advance guard killed all whom they
met, lest any should know where the Tsar was.
Villages and towns were annihilated. Monks had to
find twenty roubles each as ransom ; those who could
not were thrashed from morning until night, then,
when Ivan arrived on the scene, were flogged to death.
On his arrival at Novgorod he was entertained by
the people ; during the banquet served to him and his
followers he gave a loud cry the signal for his fellows
to begin the slaughter. The Tsar and his son went
to an enclosure specially reserved for the torture of
their victims, and with their lances prodded those who
were not quickly enough dragged to the place of
torment. Chroniclers say that from 500 to 1000 were
slain in cold blood before him each day of his stay.
Some were burned, some racked to death, others
drowned in the Volkhof, run in on sledges or thrown
in from the bridge soldiers in boats spearing those
who swam. Infants were empaled before the eyes of
their mothers, husbands butchered along with their
wives. Novgorod, at that time larger and of greater
commercial importance than Moscow, was so injured
that she has never since acquired the rank of even a
third-rate town. On leaving it, Ivan called together a
few starving survivors, and commanded them to obey
the laws and fear him. He went on to Pskov, where
the town was saved by the boldness of a half-witted
hermit, who offered Ivan raw meat on a fast-day, and
threatened him that he would be struck by lightning if
any citizen of Pskov was injured whilst Ivan remained
in the town. An accident to his horse seemed to Ivan

57

The Story of Moscow

an earnest of the " Holy-man's " power, and he left
the town precipitately.

According to Horsey, Ivan at this time had a
Tartar army with him, and tried to reduce other towns
in Livonia. At Reval, men and women carried water
by night to repair the breaches in the walls made by
his cannon during the day, and Ivan, losing six thousand
men, in the end had to retreat in shame. Losing
more men before Narva, he put in execution
there " the most bloody and cruellest massacre
that ever was heard of in any age," giving the
spoil of the town to his Tartars. Following
the custom of his country, the
prisoners of war were all
brought as slaves to Moscow,
many dying on the way, some,
including Scotch and English
soldiers of fortune in the pay of
!';{ the Swedes, thrown into prison in
Moscow and there subsequently
tortured and executed.

These excursions of Ivan and
his men into distant parts of his
dominions afforded the Muscovites
some respite from his attentions. The English then
there were much impressed by the cruelties of Ivan,
though themselves escaping. Jerom Horsey thus de-
scribes Ivan's invasion of Novgorod :

" O the lamentable outcries and cruel slaughters ! The
drownings and burnings, the ravishing of women and maids,
stripping them naked without mercy or regard of the frozen
weather, tying and binding them by three and four together
at their horses' tails: dragging them, some alive, some dead,
all bloodying the ways and streets, lying full of carcases of
the aged men, women and infants ! Thus were infinite
numbers of the fairest people in the world dragged into
Muscovy."

58

ALARM TOWER

Ivan the Terrible

With the spoil brought from Novgorod was the
" Great Bell of Novgorod " which had so often
called its burghers to assemble for the defence of the
town. Ivan was determined that the tocsin should
never again be heard over the fallen city. The bell
he caused to be hanged in the turret on the Kremlin
wall near the Spasski Gate, where for long it was used
as the alarm bell of Moscow, but subsequently served as
metal when the great bell in Ivan Veliki was recast.

Shortly after his return from Novgorod he entered
upon his fourth cycle of massacres. The prisoners
were executed in batches before the Spasski Gate.
Horsey was instrumental in getting the lives of many
spared, and they were settled in a suburb of Moscow
where they lived at peace with the citizens but were
still subject to attacks from the opritchniks. Ivan found
other traitors among the boyards and princes, for his
favourites of to-day were the victims of the morrow.

" On July 25, in the middle of the market-place, eighteen
scaffolds were erected, a number of instruments of torture
were fixed in position, a large stack of wood was lighted,
and over it an enormous cauldron of water was placed.
Seeing these terrible preparations, the people hurried away
and hid themselves wherever they could, abandoning their
opened shops, their goods and their money. Soon the place
was void but for the band of opritchniks gathered round
the gibbets, and the blazing fire. Then was heard the
sound of drums : the Tsar appeared on horseback, accom-
panied by his dutiful son, the boyards, some princes, and
quite a legion of hangmen. Behind these came some hun-
dreds of the condemned, many like spectres; others torn,
bleeding, and so feeble they scarce could walk. Ivan halted
near the scaffolds and looked around, then at once com-
manded the opritchniks to find where the people were and
drag them into the light of day. In his impatience he even
himself ran about here and there, calling the Muscovites to
come forward and see the spectacle he had prepared for
them, promising all who came safety and pardon. The
inhabitants, fearing to disobey, crept out of their hiding-

59

The Story of Moscow

places, and, trembling with fright, stood round the scaffold.
Some having climbed on to the walls, and even showing them-
selves on the roofs, Ivan shouted : ' People, ye are about to
witness executions and a massacre, but these are traitors
whom I thus punish. Answer me: Is this just?' And
on all sides the people shouted approval. ' Long live our
glorious King ! Down with traitors ! Goiesi, Goida ! '

" Ivan separated 180 of the prisoners from the crowd and
pardoned them. Then the first Clerk of the Council un-
rolled a scroll and called upon the condemned to answer.
The first to be brought before him was Viskovati, and to
him he read out : ' Ivan Mikhailovich, formerly a Coun-
sellor of State, thou hast been found faithless to his Imperial
Highness. Thou hast written to the King Sigismund offer-
ing him Novgorod: there thy first crime! ' He paused to
strike "Viskovati on the head, then continued reading :
1 And this thy second crime, not less heinous than thy first,
O ungrateful and perfidious one ! Thou hast written to the
Sultan of Turkey, that he may take Astrakhan and Kazan,'
whereupon he struck the condemned wretch twice, and
continued : ' Also thou hast called upon the Khan of the
Krim Tartars to enter and devastate Russia : this thy third
crime.' Viskovati called God to witness that he was inno-
cent, that he had always served faithfully his Tsar and his
country : ' My earthly judges will not recognise the truth ;
but the Heavenly Judge knows my innocence ! Thou also,
O Prince, thou wilt recognise it before that tribunal on
high ! ' Here the executioners interrupted, gagging him.
He was then suspended, head downwards, his clothes torn
off, and, Maluta Skutarov, the first to dismount from his
horse and lead the attack, cut off an ear, then, little by
little, his body was hacked to pieces.

"The next victim was the treasurer, Funikov-Kartsef, a
friend of Viskovati, accused with him of the same treason,
and as unjustly. He in his turn said to Ivan, ' I pray God
will give thee in eternity a fitting reward for thy actions
here 1 ' He was drenched with boiling and cold water
alternately, until he expired after enduring the most horrible
torments. Then others were hanged, strangled, tortured,
cut to pieces, killed slowly, quickly, by whatever means
fancy suggested. Ivan himself took a part, stabbing and
slaying without dismounting from his horse. In four hours
two hundred had been put to death, and then, the carnage
over, the hangmen, their clothes covered with blood, and
their gory, steaming knives in their hands, surrounded the
60

Ivan the Terrible

Tsar and shouted huzzah. ' Goida ! Goida ! Long live the
Tsar! Ivan for ever! Goida! Goida!' And so shouting
they went round the market-place that Ivan might examine
the mutilated remains, the piled-up corpses, the actual evi-
dences of the slaughter. Enough of bloodshed for the one
day? Not a bit of it. Ivan, satiated for the moment with
the slaughter, would gloat over the grief of the survivors.
Wishing to see the unhappy wives of Funikov-Kartsef and
of Viskovati, he forced a way into their apartments and
made merry over their grief! The wife of Funikov-Kartsef
he put to the torture, that he might have from her whatever
treasures she possessed. Equally he wished to torture her
fifteen -year-old daughter, who was groaning and lamenting
at their ill fortune, but contented himself with handing her
over to the by no means tender mercies of the Tsarevich
Ivan. Taken afterwards to a convent, these unhappy beings
shortly died of grief it is said." Karamzin.

Sometimes Ivan's vagaries were less gruesome, pos-
sessing even a comic aspect :

One day he requisitioned of his secretary 200,000 men at
arms by such a day and signed the order" Johnny of Moscow."
He carried a staff with a very sharp spike in the end, which,
in discourse he would strike through his boyard's feet, and if
they could bear it without flinching, he would favour them.
He once sent to Vologda for a pot of fleas and because the
town could not send the measure full, he fined the inhabitants
7000 roubles.

" He once went in disguise into a village and sought
shelter. The only man who would offer it was the
one worst off, and at the time sore beset. Ivan pro-
mised to return, and did so with a great company and
many presents, acting also as godson to the man's child,
whose birth he had witnessed. Then his followers
burned all the other dwellings in the village to teach
the owners charity and try how good it was to lie out
of doors in winter."

" When Ivan went on his tours he was met by the
householders and presented with the best they had. A
poor shoemaker knowing not what to give, except a
pair of sandals, was reminded that a large turnip in his

61

The Story of Moscow

garden was a rarity, and so presented that to Ivan, who
took the present so kindly that he commanded a
hundred of his followers to buy sandals of the man at
a crown a pair. A bo yard seeing him so well paid,
made account by the rule of proportion to get a much
greater reward by presenting Ivan with a fine horse,
but Ivan, suspecting his intention, rewarded him with
the turnip the bootmaker had given."

On a certain festival he played mad pranks, which caused
some Dutch and English women to laugh, and he, noticing
this, sent all to the palace, where he had them stripped stark
naked before him in a great room and then he commanded
four or five bushels of pease to be thrown on the floor and
made them pick all up one by one, and, when they had done,
gave them wine and bade them heed how they laughed before
an emperor again. He sent for a nobleman of Kasan, who
was called Plethcare, which is " Bald," and the Vayvod mistak-
ing the word, thought he sent for a hundred bald pates and
therefore got together as many as he could, about eighty or
ninety, and sent them up speedily with an excuse that he
could find no more in his province and asking pardon. The
em'peror seeing so many, crossed himself, and finding out how
the mistake occurred, made the baldpates drunk for three days
then sent them home again. Collins.

" He it was who nailed a French ambassador's hat
to his head. Sir Jeremy Bowes, the English am-
bassador, soon after came before Ivan, put on his hat,
and cocked it before him, at which Ivan sternly
demanded how he durst do so, having heard how he
chastised the French ambassador. Sir Jeremy answered,

* I am the ambassador of the invincible Queen of
England, who does not veil her bonnet, nor bare her
head to any prince living. If any of her ministers
shall receive any affront abroad, she is able to avenge
her own quarrel.'

" Look you at that ! ' cried Ivan to his boyards,

* Which of you would do so much for me, your master ? ' '

He was probably not acting nor scoffing when he
62

Ivan the Terrible

acted the part of abbot, and made his companions
friars of the house at Alexandrovskt to which he
retreated for upwards of a year at a time when he
mistrusted the people of Moscow and feared for his
life and his throne. Ivan regularly summoned to mass
this strange company, all clad like brothers of a
monastery, and himself officiated. His prostrations
were no sham, for his forehead bore the marks of its
severe knockings on the floor, but in the middle of a
mass he would pause to give some order for the murder
of his victims, or the pillage of the rich. The mornings
were spent in religious exercise the rest of the day
and much of the night in the foulest orgies and the
perpetration of fearful outrages in the dungeons and
torture chambers of his residence.

At all times the boyards durst do nothing without
him, and waited upon him duteously wherever he might
go. His voievodes kept the newly-conquered provinces
in subjection ; others carried the war into the country
of his enemies and brought fresh lands under his
dominion. Yermak, an outlaw, conquered Siberia and
made of it a gift to the Tsar. Anthony Jenkinson, on
behalf of the English Russia Company, conveyed their
goods from Archangel to Astrakhan ; there fitted out a
fleet for trading on the shores of the Caspian, and made
a successful war on the Shah of Persia.

In 1571 Ivan's voievodes failed him. They were
unable, or unwilling, to oppose the Tartar horde and it
reached Moscow. There the enemy pillaged and burnt
the town, destroying the stores, houses and buildings
outside the Kremlin. The town suffered worse than
in the great conflagrations of 1 547, but the Tartars,
satisfied with the spoil, withdrew. They subsequently
sent envoys to Ivan and these were at once imprisoned.
Kept in dark rooms, ill-treated, almost starved,
they endured ; made light of the hardships ; scorned

63

The Story of Moscow

their guardians. At last an audience was granted
them.

"The Ambassador enters Ivan's presence ; his followers kept
back in a space with grates of iron between the Emperor and
them ; at which the ambassador chafes with a hellish, hollow
voice, looking fierce and grimly. Four captains of the guard
bring him near the Emperor's seat. Himself, a most ugly
creature, without reverence, thunders out, says, His master
and lord, Devlet Geray, great Emperor of all the Kingdoms
and Kams the sun did spread his beams over, sent to him Ivan
Vasilievich, his vassal, and Grand Duke over Russia by his
permission, to know how he did like the scourge of his dis-
pleasure by sword, fire and famine ? Had sent him for remedy
(pulling out a foul, rusty knife) to cut his throat withal."
They hasted him forth from the room, and would have taken
off his gown and cap, but he and his company strove with
them so stoutly. The Emperor fell into such an agony ; sent
for his ghostly father ; tore his own hair and beard for madness !
Then sent away the ambassador with this message, " Tell the
miscreant and unbeliever, thy master, it is not he, it is for my
sins, and the sins of my people against my God and Christ.
He it is that hath given him, a limb of Satan, the power and
opportunity to be the instrument of my rebuke, by whose
pleasure and grace I doubt not of revenge, and to make him
my vassal ere long be." The Tartar answered, " He would
not do him so much service as to do any such message for
him." Horsey.

Ivan had to send his own emissaries to the Tartars
and the Khan kept them imprisoned seven years, and
in other ways showed his contempt for the ruler of
Moscow. But for Ivan's newly-found friends the
English, his enemies in east and west would have
conquered him. The English, much to the disgust of
Swedes and Poles, supplied Ivan with artillery and
small arms ; improved engines of war, much gunpowder,
and showed his men how to use them Russians are
not slow to learn.

In 1548 Ivan sent John Schlitte to Germany to
enlist foreign artisans for his service. Attracted by
the high remuneration offered, a hundred were willing

64

Ivan the Terrible

to accompany Schlitte back to Moscow, but the Govern-
ments, anticipating danger to their territory if the Russ
became enlightened, refused permission. Only a few
determined stragglers reached Russian territory. The
first printers in Russia were encouraged for a time, then,
for their own safety, had hurriedly to seek exile.

For Moscow Ivan did little : twice during his reign
the town was destroyed by fire. After the first he
built himself a new palace of wood within the Kremlin ;
later he had another constructed outside, between the
Nikitskaia and the Arbat. For a long time he lived
in neither, preferring a wretched dwelling in a far off
village, whence he believed he could, at need, escape
unobserved to England if any of his subjects took up
arms against him.

The monument of his reign is the church in the
Grand Place. Dedicated to the " Intercession of the
Holy Virgin," it was built at Ivan's command, and at
the expense of Kazan, to commemorate the conquest of
that town, which fell on the first of October 1552.
Commenced in 1553, it was completed six years later
and consecrated by the Metropolitan Macarius on the
day of its patron saint.

The name of its architect is unknown. Tradition
asserts that Ivan, to make sure that this church should
be " the crowning effort of his wonderful genius," put
out his eyes. There is no evidence in support of this
story, and it is unlikely that Ivan would have done a
thing so usual.

Many writers have asserted that this fantastic edifice
is a mixture of the Gothic, Moorish, Indian, Byzantine
and other styles of architecture. As a matter of fact
it is but an exaggeration of the Russian style, an
agglomeration of domes, towers and spires, one or
other of which may be found on many buildings in
" wooden Russia." In the chapter on " Ecclesiastical

E 65

Moscow " the reader will find further information on
this point. It appears to embody the salient features of
many styles, eastern and western, and the whole, if
neither beautiful nor magnificent is strikingly imposing
and original. Unlike other Russian churches the belfry
instead of being at the west end, is at the east. Nine
of its chapels are each surmounted by a lofty roof
differing from the others.

The central one, that dedicated to the Virgin, has a
high tower and wonderful spire, the paintings on its
internal converging sides adding to its extravagant pro-
portions. The other eight chapels on this floor surround
the spire and are covered with the usual arched vault
supporting longer or shorter cylindrical towers, sur-
mounted with cupolas of different forms and sizes.
One, has apparently large facets ; another bristles like
the back of a hedgehog ; a third bears closest resem-
blance to a pine-apple, a fourth to a melon ; a fifth is
in folds, another has spiral gonflements none are plain.
A covered gallery extends from north to south, with
roofed and spired stairways leading up to the church
level, and a narrow passage and outside wall enclose
the remaining chapels. The quaint belfry with its
Russo-Gothic spire and bright roofing, being unlike
aught else, is in keeping with the general design. Out-
side, the central dome is brightly gilt, the others are
painted in gaudy colours, and the whole of the exterior
is decorated with crude patterns in strong contrast.
Its design is bizarre ; its colour is motley ; the two
both harmonise and contrast the whole fascinates. It
is at once both a nightmare and a revelation. Like
an impressionist's picture it rivets attention by apparent
strength and seeming originality. It cannot be forgotten,
yet it repels by its egregious fatuity. It is the oyer-
inflated frog at the instant of explosion. It is not even
known by its correct name : covering the remains of a
66

Ivan the 'Terrible

mendicant monk " idiotic for Christ's sake," its familiar
appellation, " Blessed Willie," is derived from him.

VASILJ BLAJENNI

He it was who so often interposed his person between
the Tsar and the objects of his wrath. He upbraided

67

The Story of Moscow

Ivan ; threatened him with all manner of disasters, but
neither Ivan nor his opritchniks ever hurt the naked
body of the old beggar. He used to address the Tsar
familiarly, " Ivashka " (Bad Jacky) ; when the Tsar
offered him money he let it fall to the floor, blew on
his fingers, said the coins burned, and asked Ivan why
he had his gold from hell. Then he would tell Ivan
that on his forehead were already growing the horns of
a goat that he was becoming a devil really then hold
him up to the ridicule of the court and the people
and Ivan, enraged, dared not strike him down himself
or order anyone to do so. Now, the wonderful monu-
ment of Ivan's time is called by the name of the man
he feared ; it is he the orthodox remember ; it is his
church ; they honour and revere him. Later another
popular prophet, " Ivan the Idiot " was buried there by
order of the Tsar Theodore : his chapel adjoins that of
" Blessed Willie," below the level of the church itself
at the east end.

The church has not much history ; the Poles plun-
dered it, Napoleon ordered his generals to "Destroy
that Mosque " instead they quartered themselves there.
It has been many times repaired ; was reconsecrated in
1812 and remains, what it is, a striking memorial of a
fearful era.

As a place of worship it is now but little used. Its
architecture is not of the kind to inspire lofty thoughts,
or draw any nearer to God. Its associations are all
unpleasant, reminiscent of the excesses of Ivan, the
weaknesses of his immediate successors. Worse, it
lacks sincerity : intuitively one knows that such a
building cannot shelter truth or engender hope. To
uncover at its portal seems a mockery ; to connect it
with aught that is pure and Holy, a rank blasphemy.

Glittering in bright sunlight, gay with colour, re-
splendent with reflections from a glorious sky, it seems
68

Ivan the Terrible

only like a kaleidoscopic flash on a variegated canvas.
To know Vasili Blajenni, the visitor should walk
round it in the dusk of the evening, in the gloom of a
winter's day, or, in summer, in that half-light of mid-
night that there does duty for darkness. Standing in
the shadow of the Kremlin wall, on soil saturated
fathoms deep with the blood of innocent martyrs,
examine the building closely and call to memory the
people by whom and for whom it was produced. Then
and then only may the conception of this fungus-like
excrescence seem possible, and Vasili Blajenni stand
revealed as an expression of inordinate vanity, un-
controlled passion, insatiate lust. Like attributes with-
out a soul weird, monstrous, horrible. No fitting
memorial of any man, yet not out of character with
what is known of him they called Ivan the Terrible.

The clergy alone possessed any power besides the
Tsar ; but the Church was unable to coerce him or to
save the people. Obedience to those in power it had
inculcated so long and thoroughly that the Russians
never attempted reprisals or lifted a hand against the
Tsar. Even a voievod, speaking to Ivan, had his
ears sliced off there and then by the Tsar himself, and
he not only bore it patiently, but thanked the Tsar for
his attention. The people, debased, servile, frightened,
could not help the Church and soon the clergy could
not help themselves. Ivan, who was fond of the
semblance of justice, after his expedition north appointed
a baptized Tartar, one Simeon Bekbulatov, to be Tsar
in his place, then himself abdicated. But he took
care to make Simeon do as he wished, and he kept the
power. The people obeyed Simeon, to a certain
extent, but the Tsar's chief object in this was to
legalise his seizure of ecclesiastical revenues. Simeon
made certain agreements, but not having made those in
force, which had been recognised by Ivan, he abrogated

69

them. Then Ivan dismissed Simeon amidst the
thanksgiving and rejoicing of his people, and with tears
in his own eyes, the arch-hypocrite again took his
seat on the throne. But the old agreements were no
longer in force ; then Ivan declared null and void
certain acts of Simeon, and so between the two,
secured all the Church properties he wanted, and
deprived the clergy of many privileges. Ivan was a
great chess-player ; his strategy as Tsar shows how
his knowledge of the game benefited him.

Ivan put to death his cousin Vladimir for no crime ;
his mother Euphrosyne, when living in seclusion in a
convent, he dragged forth and drowned in the Cheksna.
His own sister-in-law, the widow of his early playmate
Yuri, was also killed for no other reason than in the
seclusion of the convent she had shed tears over the
victims of the despot's fury.

The boyard Rostevski, after imprisonment, was
marched naked in very cold weather until the Volga
was reached. His guards said that there they must
water their horses. " Ah," said Rostevski, " full
well I know I have to drink of that water too," and
straightway he went to his death.

Seerkon had no other crime than that he was rich.
A rope was placed round his waist and he was hauled
from one side of a river to the other and back again
until half-drowned, then placed in a bath of hot oil
and torn to pieces.

Ivan kept many bears, and delighted to turn them
out when savage amongst helpless people. Another
diversion was to clothe men in bear skins, then set
trained dogs to tear them to pieces. He poured spirits
over the heads of delegates, then set their beards on
fire. On one occasion his men brought a lot of women
of Moscow, and stripping all naked presented them to
Ivan he took a few and gave the remainder to the
70

Ivan the Terrible

perpetrators of this outrage. Prince Chernialef he had
grilled in an enormous frying-pan ; hundreds died on
the rack.

" Kniaz Ivan Kuraken, being found drunk, as was pretended,
in Wenden when besieged, being voievod thereof, was stripped
naked, laid on a cart, whipped through the market with six
whips of wire, which cut his back, belly and bowels to death.
Another, as I remember, Ivan Obrossimov, was hanged naked
on a gibbet by the hair of his head ; the skin and flesh of his
body from top to toe cut off and minced with knives into small
gobbets, by four palatsniks (chamberlains). The one, wearied
with his long carving, thrust his knife in somewhat far the
sooner to dispatch him, and was presently had to another place
of execution and that hand cut off"; which, not being well
seared, he died the next day.

"That was the valley compared to Gehenna or Tophet,
where the faithless Egyptians did sacrifice their children to
the hideous devils.

" Kniaz Boris Telupa was drawn upon a sharp stake, soaped
to enter his body and out at his neck, upon which he languished
in horrible pain for fifteen hours and spake unto his mother,
the duchess, brought to behold that woeful sight. And she,
a good matronly woman, given to one hundred gunners who
did her to death. Her body lying naked in the Place, Ivan
commanded his huntsman to bring their hungry hounds and
devour her flesh, and dragged her bones everywhere. The
Tsar saying : ' Such as I favour I have honoured, and such as
be treytors will I have thus done unto.'" Horsey.

Another bo yard impaled, during the long hours he
remained conscious, never ceased calling upon God to
forgive the Tsar. On one occasion, during a time of
great scarcity, Ivan caused it to be made known that
at a certain hour alms would be distributed at his palace.
A great crowd of needy people assembled, and seven
hundred were promptly knocked on the head by the
opritchniks and their bodies thrown into the lake ; a
death so merciful, Horsey terms it "a deed of charity."

Ivan forced father to kill son, and son father. His
two once favourites, the Gluiskis, also suffered ; the
son being beheaded as he reverently raised, the head

7 1

The Story of Moscow

just struck from his father's body. On that same day
another prince was impaled and four others beheaded.
Many were hung up by the feet, hacked with knives,
and whilst still living, plunged into a cauldron of scald-
ing water. On one occasion, eight hundred women
were drowned together. The opritchniks, of whom
at one time Ivan had seven hundred, killed scores of
people daily.

He himself plotted against the life of his own son
and gave " Maliuta " (Skutarov) orders to kill him.
Kniaz Serebrenni saved him. This is the subject of
Count A. Tolstoi's best known novel and of an old
ballad which recounts how the Tsar got all the boyards
together to say a mass for the dead Tsarevich and in
mourning, " or all I will boil in a cauldron." Nikita
Serebrenni, hiding the Tsarevich behind the door, enters
in ordinary raiment and is questioned by the Tsar, who
when he knows that the Tsarevich is safe, rejoices
greatly and offers Serebrenni half the kingdom as a
reward. Serebrenni answers :

" Ah ! woe Tsar Ivan Vasilievich !
I wish neither for the half of thy kingdom,
Nor the gold of thy coffers.
Give me only that wicked Skutarov,
I will guide him to the noisome marsh
That men call most cursed spot."

With the aid of his foreign physician, Bomel, Ivan
substituted poison for the knife. At his table the
craven boyards would gather trembling ; take from him
and drain the cup they knew to be poisoned. No
wonder Horsey called them " a base and servile people,
without courage." In his turn " Elizius Bomelius "
suffered a cruel death. When Theodorof was accused
of aspiring to the crown, Ivan dressed him in the royal
insignia, seated him on the throne and did him mock
homage ; then struck him dead, saying that it was he
72

Ivan the Terrible

who exalted the humble and put down the mighty from
their scats.

His people all shrank from him : the merchants hid
their goods if he, or any of his spies, were in their
neighbourhood ; none dared be counted rich. He
robbed any and all. Even the English merchants,
whose good esteem he prized, were forced to furnish
him with what he wished, on credit, and were never
paid. They dared not offer their wares to any, unless
he had first been afforded an opportunity to purchase
at his own price.

His palace at Alexandrovski was a wondrous build-
ing ; all spires, domes, quaint gables, and corridors as
unlike all other palaces as Vasili Blajenni is unlike
other churches. Of his enormities there, none may
write. After his death, it was struck by lightning and
burned to the ground.

He was rough, uncouth, unfeeling. He emptied
scalding soup over one of his favourites and laughed
at the sufferer's contortions. Taking offence at a
remark of one of his jesters, he ran his knife into
the little fellow's chest ; then called a doctor, telling
him he had used his fool roughly. The doctor told
him the man was dead. Ivan, remarking that he was
a poor jester after all, went away to his revels.

A straightforward old boyard, Morozof, a hard
fighter and an upholder of the rights of his order, for
disputing with the favoured Boris Godunov about pre-
cedence, was exiled. After some years he was again
summoned to court, and Ivan made of him a buffoon.
Count Alexis Tolstoi uses the story in his romance
"Prince Serebrenni."

" 'Yes, the Boyard is old in years but young in spirit. He
loves a joke so do I in the hours not devoted to prayers or
my affairs of state. But since I killed that foolish jester, no
one knows how to amuse me. I see that the Boyard Morozof

73

The Story of Moscoiv

wants the post. I have promised to show him a favour
I name him my chief jester ! Bring the cap and bells 1 Put
them on the Boyard.' The muscles of the Tsar's face worked
sharply, his voice was unchanged.

" Morozof was thunder-struck : he could not believe his ears.
He looked more terrible even than the Tsar. When Gresnoi
brought the cloak, with its tinkling bells, Morozof pushed
him aside. ' Stand back I Do not dare, outcast, to touch
Boyard Morozof! Your fathers cleaned out my ancestor's
kennels. You leave me alone I Tsar, withdraw your order.
Let me be put to death. With my head you can do as you
will. You may not touch my honour ! '

" Ivan looked round at the opritchniks. ' You see I am
right in saying that the Boyard will have his joke. I have no
right to promote him to the office of jester, eh ? '

" ' Tsar, I implore you to withdraw your words. Before you
were born I fought for your father with Simski against the
Cheremiss ; with Odoevski and Mstislavski drove back the
Krim-Tartars, and chased the Tartars away from Moscow. I
defended you when a child ; fought for your rights and the
rights of your mother. 1 prized only mine honour : that has
always remained unstained. Will you mock the grey hairs
of a faithful servant ? Behead me rather if you will. '

" ' Your foolish words show that you are well fitted for a
jester. Put on the cloak ! And you fellows, help him. He
is used to be waited upon.'

"The opritchniks put on the fool's cloak, the parti-coloured
cap, and retreating, bowed low before him. ' Now amuse us
as did the late jester ! ' said their leader.

" Morozof was resolute. ' I accept the new post, to which
the Tsar has appointed me. It was not fit for Boyard
Morozof to sit at table with a Godunov but the court fool
may keep company even with such as the Basmanovs. Make
way for the new jester, and listen, all of you, how he will
amuse Ivan Vasilievich ! ' He made a gesture of command :
the opritchniks stood aside, and with his bells tinkling, the
fine old man marched up the room and seated himself on the
stool before the Tsar, but with such dignity that he seemed to
be wearing the royal purple instead of the motley of the
court fool.

" ' How shall I amuse you, Tsar ? ' and putting his elbows
on the table, he leant forward and looked directly into the eyes
cf his sovereign. ' It is not easy to find a fresh diversion for
you ; there have been so many jests in Russia since you began
to reign. You rode your horse over the helpless in the streets

74

Ivan the Terrible

once-upon-a-time ; you have thrown your companions to
dogs, you poured burning pitch over the heads of those who
humbly petitioned you ! But those were childish freaks.
You soon tired of such simple cruelties. You began to
imprison your nobles, in order to fill your rooms with their
wives and daughters, but of this also you have tired. You
next chose your most faithful servants for the torture ; then
you found it wearied you to mock the people and the nobles,
so you began to scoff at the Church of God. You picked out
the lowest rabble, decked them out as monks, and yourself
became the abbot ! In daylight you commit murders ; at night
sing psalms ! Your favourite amusement, this 1 None had
thought of it before. You are covered with blood, yet you
chant and ring the holy bells and would like to perform the
mass. What else shall I say to amuse you, Tsar? This:
whilst you are masquerading thus with your opritchniks,
wallowing in blood, Sigismund with his Poles will fall on you
in the west, and from the east will come the Khan, and you
will have left none alive to defend Moscow. The holy churches
of God will be entered and burned by the infidel, all the holy
relics will be taken : you, you the Tsar of all the Russias,
will have to kneel at the feet of the Khan, and ask leave to
kiss his stirrup ! ' Morozof ceased. None dared interrupt ;
all held their breath in agonising suspense. Ivan, pale, with
flashing eyes, and foaming with rage, listened to all atten-
tively, bent forward, as though fearing to lose a single word.
Morozof gazed proudly around him. ' Do you want me to
divert you further, Tsar? I will. One faithful subject, of high
birth, still remained to you. You had not yet thought of
killing him, because perhaps perhaps you feared the anger
of God ; and perhaps only because you could think of no torture
or infamous death worthy of him. He lived in disgrace far
from you : you exiled him ; you might have forgotten him
but you never forget, do you, Tsar? You sent your cursed
favourite, Viasemski, to burn his house and carry off his wife.
When he came to you for redress for these wrongs, you sent
him to combat for the right, in the hope that your young
courtier would kill the old boyard. God did not allow you
that joy, Tsar. He gave the other the victory. What did
you do then, Tsar?' the bells on the cap tinkled as the old
man's head shook with his emotion. ' Why, then you dis-
honoured him by an unheard-of outrage. Then, Tsar,' he
pushed back the table in his indignation, and sprang to his
feet ' then you ordered the boyard, Morozof, to wear
the fool's cap ! You forced the man, who had saved Tula

75

The Story of Moscow

and Moscow, to play the fool to amuse you and your idle
courtiers ! '

" The look of the old warrior was fierce ; the absurdity of his
dress disappeared. His eyes flashed fire, his white beard fell
on a chest scarred witL many wounds now hidden beneath a
jester's cloak. So much dignity was there in him that by his
side the Tsar looked mean.

" Tsar, your new fool stands before you. Listen to his last
jest. While you live the people dare not speak, but when
your hateful reign is over your name will be cursed from
generation to generation, until, on the day of judgment, the
hundreds and thousands you have murdered men, women and
little children, all of whom you have tortured and killed, all
will stand before God appealing against you, their murderer.
On that dreadful day I, too, shall appear in this same dress
before the Great Judge, and will ask for that honour you took
from me on earth. You will have no body-guard then to
defend you ; the Judge will hear us, and you will go into that
everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.'

" Casting a disdainful look upon the courtiers, Morozof turned
round and slowly withdrew. None dared to stop him. He
passed through the hall with great dignity, and not until the
jingle of his bells ceased did any speak." Alexis Tolstoi.

His son, the Tsarevich Ivan, wished to lead an
army against his father's enemies in Lithuania. In
this offer the jealous Tsar saw an attempt to gain
popularity. He turned on Ivan savagely and struck
him repeatedly with the iron-shod " sceptre " he always
carried ; the last blow knocked the young man sense-
less. He fell to the ground, and the Tsar, now
frightened, did his utmost to save him, but he was
injured too severely and died four days later.

There still exists in the monastery of St Cyril,
Moscow, a synodal letter, in which are specified a
number of victims for whom Ivan solicited the prayers of
the Church. The souls of 3,470 in all are to be prayed
for ; 986 of these are mentioned by name, the others
are cited as " with his wife," " with sons," " with
wife and children," " Kazarim Dubrovski and his two
sons and the ten men who came to their defence,"
76

Ivan the Terrible

" twenty men of the village of Kolomensko," " eighty
of Matveche," " Remember, Lord, the souls of thy
servants to the number of 1,505 Novgorodians."

In the number of wives recognised by the Church as
more or less legitimately joined with him he beat Henry
VIII. by only one, but in the number of mistresses
he can be compared with Solomon alone. Anastasia
Romanof died in i 560 ; in the same year he married
Mary Tangrak, either a Cheremiss or Tartar. His
next wife was chosen out of all the most eligible maids
in Russia. Her name was Marfa Sabakina of Novgorod.
The marriage took place on October 28, 1571, and on
November 13 of the same year she died. Her brother,
Michael, the Tsar impaled shortly afterwards. Ivan's
marriage with Natalia Bulkatov was not recognised by
the Church. Anna Koltoski he took next, but he
forced her into a nunnery later, where she lived until
1626. Anna Vasilichekov and one Mstislavski suc-
ceeded, but only one was recognised, which one is
disputed. Vassilissa Melentief, a great beauty, was his
next choice, but the Church recognised only Maria
Nagoi, the mother of the murdered Dmitri, whom he
married in 1580. When but a few months wed, he
informed Queen Elizabeth that he would put aside
his wife, who was shortly to become a mother, if he
could find a suitable partner for himself in England.
Poor Lady Mary Hastings, learning something of his
character, begged her sovereign not to mate her
with such a barbarian. His harem was that of a
Turk.

He was prematurely worn out with his excesses.
He could obtain little peace. Superstitious, he
sent for wizards and prognosticates ; Finns who
certainly foretold the day, if not the hour, of his
death. The appearance of a comet greatly terrified
him the once mighty Tsar lost his strength. Like

77

The Story of Moscow

Herod of old he died a fearful death, and he left his
country in a worse plight than he found it.

He was received into the Church before his
demise, but he is officially known as Yoanna and
familiarly as " Groznoi " (the Terrible). His evil
deeds are forgotten by the people, whilst the enrich-
ment of his country by others of his day is counted
to his credit. He was the first " Tsar " of Russia,
and not in name only ; he was its first ruler to become
an absolute autocrat.

It is a fashion of this humanitarian age to make
allowances for the harsh deeds of those who lived
in ruder times, and in this nineteenth century even
Ivan the Terrible has found apologists. His atrocities,
his joy in the perpetration of the cruellest tortures on
the innocent, all his wickednesses are admitted ; but
they call his lust by a Greek name and say he is to
be pitied rather than condemned. Yet some there
must be even now, who, when they read that Ivan
always went to the torture rooms with joy and came
away from its fiendish practices invigorated, refreshed
and gay, will rightly regard him with loathing and
horror. Not only is his character without a redeem-
ing trait, but his nature is so fiendish and foul that
the student may read long and investigate very closely
before making sure that Ivan was human. His lusts
had not the saving grace of humour ; his fear even
was sulphurous. Neither circumstances nor events
either mitigate or condone his cruelties. Through-
out his life he was actuated by one impulse only, to
gratify and preserve himself. Those who believe that
the occasion makes the man must feel that the fifty-
years rule of this despot upsets that theory. Never
was there such need for a Cromwell the country
could not produce a man, much less a liberator.
Doubtless the action of previous rulers, the centuries

78

Ivan the Terrible

of thraldom to Tartars, the thorough teaching of the
Christian doctrine of obedience to rulers, contributed to
the servility of the people. One of his tortured victims,
it is true, did try to assault him, but the wretch was
at once killed by the watchful Tsarevich, and in
future Ivan ran no such risks. Prelates rebuked him
and suffered ; his victims suffered and forgave him
none tried to free themselves or help others. In all
this dreary time only one man appears to have acted
worthily. The Englishman, Jerom Horsey, exerted
all the influence he possessed on behalf of Ivan's
prisoners. The services he rendered deserve a
memorial ; instead he received the condemnation of
the Russia Company, in whose employ he was, and
the encomiums and admiration of the Tsar whom he
loathed and despised.

The magnitude and multitude of his crimes place
Ivan far beyond other tyrants of his class. It is
reassuring to know that in no other country and at no
other time would his rule be permitted. The mere
possibility of a recurrence of such a time of terror
would determine every thinking being to die childless.
The spirit of freedom renders the ascendency or
continuance of his like impossible but in mediaeval
Moscow the spirit of freedom had no place.

79

CHAPTER VI
'The Troublous Times

" But war has spread its terrors o'er thee,
And thou hast been in ashes laid :
Thy throne seemed tottering then before thee,
Thy sceptre feeble as thy blade." DMITRIEV.

" Yea, one is full out as villainous as the other."

W. RUSSELL A Bloudie and Tragickc Massacre.

DORIS GODUNOV was the most powerful and
^ sagacious of the boyards spared by Ivan the
"Terrible"; he was best fitted to direct the policy
of the government, and later the people looked to him
as the only ruler possible. A man who could satisfy
Ivan, yet take no part in his orgies, who could keep
the goodwill of the foreign residents, yet be beloved of
the Muscovites, must have possessed abilities of no mean
order. Boris was a great man to whom historians
have done scant justice. He is described as inordin-
ately ambitious and accused of unscrupulousness in his
methods, but the court in which he was schooled may
be adduced in extenuation of his crimes, whilst am-
bition, an undesirable quality for a subject to possess,
is a laudable virtue in monarchs. It was his misfortune
not to have been born in the purple his contemporaries
and the historians have counted this a fault, but it is
too late to blame him for acting as .a king when he was
by birth a simple noble.

Boris Godunov, as brother of the Tsar's wife, had
80

'The ^Troublous Times

a recognised position apart from the favour the Tsar's
father had shown him. The relatives of the Tsarina
were always counted less dangerous to the dynasty than
were the Tsar's blood relations, and their influence at
Court was greater than their precedence warranted.
Theodore was the opposite of his father, unintelligent,
feeble-willed, incompetent, he thrust greatness upon
Boris Godunov, who saved Moscow. At that time
the Tsar held territory in Europe larger than that ruled
by any of his contemporaries ; the conquests of Yermak
in Asia brought as much more under his dominion.
Enemies, active, watchful, virulent, were ever ready to
harass its rulers. Poles and Swedes expected Moscow
sooner or later, to fall to them, and lost no opportunity
to effect the overthrow of the Russians. Tartars and
others kept up predatory wars and, within the empire,
towns and districts, devastated by the wanton cruelties
of Ivan, were anxious to get back their independence.
There were no men able to rule. Ivan had put to
death those brave enough and independent enough to
assert authority ; what was worse for Russia, he had
driven into exile competent and influential nobles, who,
maddened by his persecutions, became enemies of their
fatherland and plotted with foreign sovereigns against
the state.

To govern was difficult ; to preserve the empire
intact, still more so ; further aggrandisement almost im-
possible with the conditions then prevailing. Theodore
left everything to the council, duma, consisting of
boyards whom Godunov held in the hollow of his
hand. From his brother-in-law he obtained special
titles and special powers ; he became viceroy of im-
mense territories, and could put 100,000 armed men
into the field at need. He was practically regent
and lacked nothing that was royal but the title.
When the Shooiskis, the Belskis, the Mstislavskis
F 81

The Story of Moscow

and others did not please him he forced them from
power. Mstislavski had to become a monk ; Shooiski,
who tried to get together a party among the merchants,
was banished to a distant town ; Dionysius, the metro-
politan, was deposed, and a nominee of Godunov's
succeeded to the primacy of the church. When, in
1 586, Batory, King of Lithuania died, Boris Godunov
put forward Theodore as candidate for the crown of
Poland. But the Poles would have no ruler who
belonged to the eastern church. Moreover, they
feared the Muscovites would join Poland to Muscovy
like a sleeve to a coat ; but the claim proved that Russia
was still a power with which the west would have to
reckon. Boris, who had always been friendly with
the English, obtained for Theodore the support of
England against Danes and Swedes ; he quite won
over Queen Elizabeth to the side of the young Tsar
and, in many ways, as Grand High Chancellor ad-
vanced the interests of his sovereign and his country.

In Moscow he acted intelligently. The middle
town, the Bielo-Gorod or free town, between the
Kitai Gorod and the present boulevards was enclosed
with a wall of stone, having twenty-eight towers and
nine gates. The last gate, that on the Arbat, was
razed in 1792, the wall having been earlier demolished
and its site utilised for the present existing boulevards.
Its style was that of the wall around the Donskoi
Monastery built in 1591 to commemorate the victory
of the Muscovites under Mstislavski against 150,000
Krim-Tartars advancing on the city under the leader-
ship of the Khan Kazi Ghiree. Another building of
Godunov's is the smaller " Golden Palace " in the
Terem of the Kremlin, which was erected for the
accommodation of the Tsaritsa Irene. Many bells were
cast, and some cannon including the monstrous Tsar
Pushka still within the Kremlin which bears a
82

A CORRIDOR THE OLD PALACES

The Troublous Times

portrait of Theodore on horseback on its reinforcement.
Theodore lived in regal state : his household numbered
over 1000, and he entertained foreign ambassadors with
even greater pomp and magnificence than his pre-
decessors. Not only were these guests provided with
a fitting residence and a large suit, but it was not un-
common for as many as a hundred and fifty dinners to
be sent daily from the Tsar's kitchen for their enter-
tainment.

Ivan's youngest son, Dmitri, with his mother Maria,
and her relatives, the Nagois, were domiciled in
Uglitch by the order of Boris; whilst there in 1581,
about the period of the Tartar invasion, young Dmitri
was murdered -at Boris Godunov's instigation it is
said. Jerom Horsey, who was in Uglitch at the
time, states that he was aroused late at night, the news
given him, and his aid requested on behalf of Dmitri's
mother believed to be poisoned. Horsey gave the
messenger the small vial of sallet oil the Queen (Eliza-
beth) had given him as a specific against all poisons and
ills. An inquiry was ordered when Boris Godunov
was suspected of having instigated the crime, and as a
result of the investigation made by Shooiski it was de-
clared that the boy cut his own throat and that the
Nagois and citizens of Uglitch had put to death inno-
cent men as murderers, whereupon, the incredible finding
being believed, an effort was made to exterminate the
Nagois, and Uglitch was almost depopulated.

There can be no doubt that Dmitri was murdered
when six years old, but it is not so clear at whose
instigation the deed was done. Giles Fletcher states
that the child " resembled his father in delight of
blood," and it may be that evidence of his cruel
propensities induced some sufferer from Ivan's tyranny
to wreak vengeance on the son in hope of saving
a generation to come from such suffering as the past

85

The Story of Moscow

had endured. It may be that Boris Godunov plotted
for his removal, but it is known that Boris was anxious
for Theodore to have a son to succeed to the throne,
and, probably, had then little intention of securing it
for himself. One of the complaints made by the
Russia Company against Jerom Horsey was in con-
nection with a wrongly interpreted order he executed
on behalf of Boris Godunov who wished a " wise
woman " sent out from England to doctor the Tsaritsa,
and the company instead sent out a midwife.

To conciliate the small landowners a decree was
issued in i 597 forbidding peasants to leave the land
and thus serfdom was established. Some efforts had
been made in former centuries to restrict the migra-
tions of a people, nomadic by habit, still accustomed
to change masters frequently by moving from one
estate to another at seed time and harvest. The
tendency of the powerful was to increase the size of
their holdings and to augment their retainers by en-
ticing labourers from smaller estates. To check this
the husbandman was attached to the soil as the serf
of the estate.

As statesmanlike, and less objectionable, was the
appointment of a patriarch to win over the clergy.
Jeremiah, patriarch of Constantinople, was banished
by the Turks and sought refuge in Rome. The
Pope sent him to Moscow, hoping that the chief of
their own church would influence the Russians to
forward the amalgamation of the Greek and Roman
churches. If not successful in this, it was hoped that
the recountal of the patriarch's sufferings and indignities
at the hands of infidels, might induce the Romans to
make a league with Spain against the Turks. Accord-
ing to Giles Fletcher the Pope's emissaries did nothing
more than inveigh against England ; but with the
destruction of the Spanish Armada all conceit of a
86

'The Troublous Times

Russo-Spanish league vanished. Godunov profited
by Jeremiah's stay in Moscow. He induced him to
consecrate the Metropolitan Job, patriarch of Moscow,
and to this patriarchate that of Constantinople was
subsequently added. Thus Moscow became indis-
putably the head of the Orthodox Church, by direct
apostolic succession.

The Tsar fell ill in 1597 and died in the Kremlin
the following year, and his widow then at once retired
to the Novo Devichi convent mourning her bereavement
and blaming herself that through her the sovereign race
had perished, for her only child, Theodosia, died in
1592, when but ten months old.

The enmity the reigning princes had shown their own
kindred, produced the unexpected result that there were
now no legal heirs to the throne ; the line of which
Andrew Bogoloobski Dolgoruki was the founder, was
extinct. The Tsar Theodore when on his death-bed
said that God would provide the next Tsar, and refused
to nominate a successor. The States' Council convened
for the purpose of appointing a ruler, unanimously chose
Boris Godunov. It was impossible that the throne
could escape him. He hung back, wishful to have
an expression of the desire of the people of Moscow,
as well as of the delegates. The people required him.
They went to the Novo Devichi convent, whither he
had gone, begged him to accept the position to which
he had been appointed ; his sister " blessed him for the
throne," and with great show of reluctance, he at last
consented. In due course he was crowned ; reigned
wisely and well, but was not liked. A chronicler
has it that " he presented to the poor in a vase of gold
the blood of the innocents, he fed them with unholy
alms."

Those of his subjects who remembered the tyranny
of Ivan should have blessed their elected ruler. They

8?

The Story of Moscow

could not forget his Tartar origin : he was not of royal
descent, was no Tsar. Nor could he win popularity.
His first act was to conclude an honourable peace with
Kazi Ghiree and the invading Tartars ; his policy was
to avoid war, that " there might be neither widows nor
orphans of his making."
Horsey wrote of him :

" He is nowe become a Prince of subjects, and not of slaves,
kept within duty and loyalty by love and not by feare and
tyranny. He is comely of stature, of countenance well-favoured
and majesticalle withal ; affable in behaviour and yet of great
courage, wyse, politick, grave ; merciful, a lover of virtue and
goodness, a hater of wicked men, and a severe punisher of in-
justice. In summa, he is a most rare prince as ever reigned
over these people as any I have ever read of in their chronicles,
which are of great antiquity."

In 1 60 1 Moscow was in a state of famine, the like
of which it had never known. In a short time 3
roubles would not buy as much food as i 5 copecks had
done formerly. Driven wild by hunger the Muscovites
committed fearful atrocities. Men were entrapped,
killed and eaten. It is said that some mothers killed
and ate their own children ; pies of human flesh were
sold openly ; many thousand corpses remained unburied
in the streets ; chroniclers state that half a million
perished of famine and disease. To alleviate some of
the misery, Boris caused the granaries and stores to
be burst open, and the food avarice withheld sold at
normal prices.

Boris built two new palaces of stone within the
Kremlin ; had made a map of the Russian dominions,
and a plan of Moscow. To find employment for the
poor he caused the belfry tower of Ivan Veliki to be
constructed, and did his utmost to win the love of the
citizens. He had to combat treason and intrigue ; his
reprisals were severe, but the victims suffered in secret.
88

CHURCH OF THE ASSUMPTION

The 'Troublous 'Times

The Belskis and Romanofs were ill-treated ; the head
of the latter house was forced to become a monk, and
took the name of Philaret ; his wife to become a nun,
under the name of Marfa. One of the most remarkable
specimens of Muscovite architecture has survived from
Boris Godunov's day, the church of the Assumption
he built on the Pokrovka. Like other churches of
mediseval Moscow, its chief entrance is by steps to a
second storey, but unlike them it is carried much higher
and appears more like a collection of buildings piled
upon each other. Thirteen cupolas, at different heights,
are arranged around the central dome. A covered
gallery surrounds the church on the main storey, and
the logia beneath was, until recently, divided and let
as shops.

In 1604, the first false Dmitri appeared, invading
Russia from the west, at the head of Poles and
Zaporogians. Boris was energetic and able, but the
towns revolted on the approach of Dmitri, and the
soldiers of Godunov's voievodes '* found it hard to
bear arms against their lawful sovereign." Even
Mstislavski, who tried to stop the advance, had no
soldiers to help him ; his men " had not hands to fight,
only feet with which to run away." Shooiski was
better able to rally his men, and he defeated Dmitri at
Dobryvichi. Boris then thought that the struggle was
finished, but the movement had only just commenced.
The Ukraine rose ; some 40,000 Cossacks of the Don
joined the impostor, and the inaction of the voievodes
to stop the advance towards Moscow, proved that the
spirit of treason was wide spread.

Boris Godunov did not live to see the issue. After
a repast he was suddenly taken ill ; there was suspicion
of poisoning and, expecting to die, he nominated his
son Theodore his successor. After confiding the
youth to the care of his friend Basmanov, to the

91

The Story of Moscow

Patriarch and to the people of Moscow, he breathed
his last on the i jth April 1 605, being then but fifty-
five years of age.

Theodore ascended the throne as soon as his father's
remains were interred in the Archangelski Cathedral,
but it soon became evident to his supporters that neither
officers nor men would fight on behalf of the Godunovs.
Rather than become a victim of treason, Basmanov
chose to be its author, and announced that he was
convinced that Dmitri was in truth the son of Ivan the
Terrible.

The impostor was audacious and successful. His
career has the fascination of romance. He was one
Otrepief, a monk of the Chudov monastery within the
Kremlin. Job, the Patriarch, made him his secretary,
a position which enabled him to learn several state and
court secrets. He said one day to his fellow scribes,
that some day he would reign over them as Tsar of
Muscovy. For answer they spat, in his face, and
reported his words. Boris sent him a prisoner to the
monastery on the White Lake. He escaped, wandered
about for some time, and at Novgorod Severski was
well received by the inhabitants, to whom he revealed
himself as the supposed murdered Dmitri, and promised
all who helped him suitable rewards if he should obtain
his own rights. Then he threw off his cowl and
joined a band of Zaporogians ; learned of them how
to ride and fight. As a soldier he sought service with
Adam Vichnevetski, a Polish pan of good standing.
He soon feigned illness ; a priest was summoned, and
to him he confessed that he was the son of the Tsar.
This disclosure was of too great political value to
remain the secret of the priest, and in due course
Otrepief was recognised as Dmitri by Vichnevetski.
Then the papal Nuncio took him under his protection,
and he was presented to King Sigismund.
92

'The Troublous 'Times

It is unlikely that these dignitaries were deceived.
Sigismund feigned to believe OtrepiePs story, but
refused to recognise him officially, though he allowed
his subjects, at their own risk, to take service under
Otrepief's banner and foment a revolution.

From various motives the Russian leaders flocked to
him as he marched towards Moscow. In the town
the people crowded in the Grand Square to hear the
news of his triumphant progress ; his manifesto was
read from the Lobnoe Mesto, and none dare stay the
treason, not even the Patriarch would venture ! The
boyards Mstislavski, Vasili Shooiski, Belski and others,
went out to argue with the citizens, but they were met
with cries of " The day of Godunov is over ! To-day
the sun rises upon Russia ; Dmitri ! Long live the
Tsar Dmitri ! Down with the Godunovs ! Cursed
be the memory of Boris ! Long live Dmitri ! " So
shouting, this crowd made its way into the Kremlin.

The rioters were masters ; the guard fled, and the
townsmen who had forced their way into the palace
actually pulled the young Tsar from the throne. His
mother begged them to spare his life, and her cry was
heeded. The Godunovs were removed from the palace
to their own dwelling and a guard placed over them.
The relations and friends of the Godunovs were then
imprisoned, their dwellings pillaged and destroyed.
Belski, from his known antipathy to the Godunovs,
became the counsellor of the mob. Some time later
the partisans of Dmitri made a fresh attack on the
Kremlin. The object of their fury on this occasion
was the Patriarch. He was celebrating mass in the
Cathedral of the Assumption when an armed band
forced their way into the sanctuary, seized him at the
altar, dragged him forth and tore away his vestments.
Clad in black he was brought in ignominy from the
church, shown to the people, and sent away on a

93

The Story of Moscow

common cart to the monastery of Staritsa, five hundred
versts from Moscow.

On the loth of June 1605, the Princes Galitzin
and Mossolski, with a couple of secretaries and three
of the guard of Streltsi, went to the palace of the
Godunovs ; took Theodore and his sister from the
arms of the Tsarina and ordered the guard to put
them to death in an adjoining room, and then strangled
the Tsarina herself. Theodore made a struggle for
life, fighting savagely, but he was struck down. Xenia
was spared ; Dmitri who had heard of her beauty
ordered Mossolski to find an asylum for her in his
mansion. The corpses of Marie and Theodore after
being exposed to the public, were interred in the
convent of St Varsonophee on the Srietenka, and the
disinterred body of Boris Godunov brought to the
same resting-place.

At this time Dmitri was at Tula, but all being now
in readiness for his enthronement, he came to Moscow
and made a state entry unparalleled for its magnificence
and pageantry. A violent gust of wind which some-
what disturbed the procession as it crossed the Moskva
was taken as an omen of ill, and later in the day, by
an unlucky coincidence, at the moment when the clergy
were prostrate before the Holy ikons, the foreign
musicians sounded a fanfare. When Dmitri prostrated
himself before the tomb of Ivan and cried, " Oh my
father, thou left me an orphan and in exile, but by thy
prayers I have regained my possessions ! " the simple
people were convinced of his identity. He was
crowned; his supposed mother, Maria Nagoi, recognised
him, and his rule commenced.

Little fault can be found with the way in which
Dmitri governed. He pardoned those who had
suffered from the Godunovs, and was generous to
those who had shown themselves inimical to him ;

94

The Troublous 'Times

he rewarded his partisans handsomely and was lavish
in his expenditure. He purchased and ordered rich
furnishings for himself and the court, exhibiting a
prodigality that frightened the more staid of the
Moscow citizens. In three months he is said to
have spent more than seven million roubles, and the
display of riches was the wonder of foreign visitors
to his court. He rode Arabs, dressed his servants
like nobles, and built and furnished a palace that sur-
passed anything seen in Moscow. It was of wood ;
the stoves of porcelain had doors of silver ; the bolts
and bars of the palace were all gold, or at least gilded ;
before the entrance was an enormous statue of Cerberus,
of which the three jaws opened wide at the least
blow. The chroniclers state' that " this was a symbol
of the dwelling that was to be Dmitri's throughout
eternity."

There were malcontents, and chief among them
was Vasili Shooiski, who, on the denunciation of
Basmanov, was tortured and condemned to death.
At the last moment he was pardoned, but was im-
placable, and worked assiduously for the overthrow
of Dmitri and the ruin of Basmanov.

Pope Paul V. sent Rogoni to Moscow on the usual
errand, but Dmitri was in nowise inclined to make
any submission to Rome. At the same time he was
tolerant, and this tolerance gave great offence to the
orthodox. He allowed Lutherans to preach ; per-
mitted the Jesuits to have a place of worship within
the Kremlin ; even listened to an address in Latin
delivered by a Jesuit in an orthodox church. Equally
irritating was the freedom foreigners now had to enter
an orthodox church, the doors of which had been
hitherto closed against all but the faithful. Dmitri
upbraided the clergy for their intolerance. " With us,"
said he, " there is only the outward observance, we

95

The Story of Moscow

ignore the spirit of our religion. You fast, you
prostrate yourselves before relics, you worship the
Holy ikons, but you do not understand the spirit of
religion. You consider yourselves the most upright
people on the earth, and meanwhile you do not even
live as do Christians. You lack charity : you are little
inclined to good works. Why do you scorn those
who dissent from you ? What is the Roman faith ?
It is a Christian faith, even as yours is." Such
opinions as these alienated everyone, but especially the
clergy. To them he was gracious, allowing the
Patriarch, four metropolitans, seven archbishops and
three bishops to have seats on the general council a
privilege they had previously received upon very
special occasions only. An order he made for an
inventory of clerical property inflamed the priests of
all degrees against him.
Crull writes of him :

" For his owne person, he maintayneth his greatnesse very
well. He was a man of mean stature, browne of hue, prompt
to choler, but quickly appeased. He hath broken many a
staff, and given sentence of death, upon the marshals and
other officers, when they did but little swerve from their duty.
After he grew to know the Russians' false pranks, he provided
himself with a guard of Livonians, and afterwards also of
Asmaynes and other strangers. ... He yet further determined
to have also a hundred musketeers, when he was laid apart.
He took great delight in hunting, and in casting great pieces
of artillery, and not only to see them in hand but also to
proove them himself: for which end he caused ravelynes and
ramparts to be erected to imitate an assault."

Dmitri was too fond of the customs of the west to
satisfy the Muscovites. Many charges were made
against him which seem absurd now. Among them
may be instanced " that he favoured foreigners,
especially musicians ; " ordinarily he sacrificed pomp,
and went hither and thither about Moscow like a
96

The Troublous Times

simple citizen. He took the cannon out of the town
to test various pieces " and might then have turned them
on the town " ; he liked to watch mimic battles, and
laughed when the Muscovites were routed by the foreign
soldiers. He ate meat during Lent and veal at any
time. He showed little or no regard for Russian
customs, and broke down those barriers that prevented
the common people from having access to their Tsar.
Much could have been pardoned, but two things were
decisive : he would not sleep after dinner, and he
mounted his horse at a bound.

When Dmitri arranged to wed Marina Mniszek,
the daughter of a Polish pan, Vasili Shooiski plotted
anew for his overthrow. He it was who had been
commissioned to hold the inquiry into the crime com-
mitted at Uglitch ; and the people remembered that he,
if anyone, knew the truth respecting the murder of
Ivan's son and the identity of their present ruler.
This in some measure accounts for Dmitri's surprising
leniency towards this enemy. In his new plot Shooiski
counted upon the support of 18,000 men of Novgorod
and Pskov, then in Moscow on their way to do battle
against the Krim-Tartars. The Tsar could count on
the support of the common people, and though warned
of the danger that was threatening, he took no measures
to ensure his own safety, or that of his guests and bride.
The agents of Shooiski circulated two rumours ; one,
among the boyard and clergy, to the effect that with
the help of the newly arrived Poles " Dmitri " intended
to massacre the boyards and introduce the Roman
faith ; to the common people it was represented that
the Poles were ill-treating the Tsar. On the night of
the i yth of May the soldiers secured the entrances to
the Kremlin ; and on the morning of the i8th, Shooiski,
with a cross in one hand and a drawn sword in the
other, obtained an entrance through the Redeemer Gate,
o 97

The Story of Moscow

made straight for the Cathedral of the Assumption and,
prostrating himself before the ikon of Mary of Vladimir,
called upon those around him in the name of God to
attack the cursed heretics. The alarm bell rang ;
Basmanov met some boyards who, with swords drawn,
demanded that " Dmitri " should be given them. They
killed him ; then entered the palace in search of the
Tsar, who tried to escape, and to defend himself.
Driven along a corridor, he slipped, was stabbed, and
thrown into the courtyard. The guard of Streltsi,
called to his assistance, would have defended him, but
when threatened by Vasili and -the boyards, the Tsar
prayed them to desist, and the companions of Shooiski
thereupon despatched him. Marina was spared, and a
guard left to protect her ; but the conspirators, having
killed Dmitri, Basmanov, and a hundred or more of
the foreign musicians in the palace, they spread over
the Kitai Gorod and murdered without discrimination
all the Poles and foreigners they encountered. These
scenes continued all day, and at last the populace took
up the cry of " Down with the Poles ! " and the
massacre of foreigners became general.

The bodies of " Dmitri " and Basmanov, their faces
covered with ribald masks, prepared for " mummeries "
in celebration of the wedding, were dragged out on to the
Grand Square and exposed to the public ; later these
corpses were burned, and the ashes fired from a cannon.

On the day following the massacre, Vasili Shooiski
was proclaimed Tsar. The action was too precipitate.
Galitzin, who was a candidate, was not satisfied ; the
provinces were annoyed that they had not been con-
sulted. Shooiski did not feel secure. He sent into
the distant parts of the empire as voievodes those
boyards who had taken the side of " Dmitri."
Among them was Mossolski, who, on leaving Moscow,
took a letter addressed to " Dmitri," and had already
98

The Troublous Times

formed the idea of advancing someone else to the
throne. Vasili Shooiski was fifty years of age, he
lacked energy, and his rule satisfied no one. Pre-
tenders sprang up everywhere ; at one time there were
seventeen people claiming to be "Dmitri"; others
took the name of Peter; all claimed to be sons of
Ivan. Fighting men took their part. Cossacks,
Zaporogians, and others, wanted war for the booty it
brought. The nobles led a war in the south; in
the east the Tartars thought the time opportune for
action ; Finns tried to recover their independence ;
Swedes and Poles looked on, waiting for the best
moment at which to interfere. News travelled slowly,
lack of communication made local risings possible. The
people in distant parts heard almost at the same time
that the Tsar was dead, that Dmitri had recovered his
own, that the usurper had been dethroned they knew
not what to believe. In Moscow the citizens re-
membered that the bodies which had been exposed
on the Grand Square had the faces masked : to most
it seemed possible that " Dmitri " had escaped after all.

It was some time before the revolutionists joined
forces. In the meantime Shooiski instigated an anti-
foreign reaction. Dmitri exiled a bishop named
Hermogen, an able, devout man, uncompromisingly
orthodox, stubborn and bigoted, who now became
Patriarch, and won the confidence of the people.

In due course the different sections of the army of
revolutionaries closed in towards Moscow. Lissovski,
a noted brigand, had a large following. There was
John Zapieha, exiled from Poland, seeking fortune,
and with him numerous " pans," intent on the spoils of
war ; a host of Zaporogians, and the usual large army
of Cossacks, under the hetman Rojinski, joined them.
In the field the superior talents of Michael Skopin-
Shooiski, a nephew of the Tsar, saved the situation.

99

The Story of Moscow

He refused overtures made by Liapunov, and this
voievode consequently separated his following from
that of the revolutionaries and joined Shooiski. Bolot-
nikov had then to fall back on Tula, and he wrote to
Mniszek that unless " Dmitri " was produced, their
cause would be lost. He was found, but too late to
save Bolotnikov, who was drowned ; another leader was
hanged. The identity of the new impostor is as disputed
as that of "Junius"; to historians he is simply the "second
false Dmitri," the " Brigand of Tushino," or the " Little
Tsar." His party was strong, because each of its units
expected spoils in case of victory ; it received such
support as it had from the people by reason of the ex-
Tsaritsa Marina, the widow of " Dmitri," and Mniszek,
recognising the impostor as " Dmitri."

The northern towns supported the impostor, and
Sigismund and the Poles made common cause with
him against Moscow. Shooiski, who had refused the
proffered aid of Sweden, now sought help, and from
Novgorod the young Delagardie was sent on behalf of
Sweden. More could have been accomplished had
not Vasili Shooiski been so jealous of the successes
and popularity of his nephew. He was afraid to let
him take the field, and the impostor established him-
self at Tushino, a village ten miles to the north of
Moscow. Here he held his court, and enticed the
Muscovites by promises. Nobles and citizens alike
essayed to be on good terms with both Shooiski, the
"half-Tsar," and the impostor, the "little Tsar," spend-
ing their time at both courts, and earning the name of
Pereletsi (birds-of-passage) by their frequent changes
of residence. The townsmen were so demoralised
that they were ready for whomsoever should succeed,
yet gave little assistance to either " Tsar," and responded
but feebly to future attempts at insurrection within the
capital. The soldiers returned to their homes, and
100

'The Troublous Times

Shooiski became by turns devout and ribald. Now
spending all his hours in church, anon seeking aid of
sorcerers ; one day punishing traitors with extreme
rigour, the next proclaiming that all were free to do as
they wished. The few who remained true to Shooiski
sent sons or near relations to make court to the impostor.

The Church saved Russia in this extremity ; it was
unswervingly orthodox and opposed to Polish su-
premacy. The rich monastery of Troitsa attracted
the cupidity of the revolutionaries, and some 30,000
men under Zapieha and Lissovski laid siege to the
famous monastery in 1608. The monks held out
bravely, keeping the besiegers at bay for sixteen
months. In September 1609 Sigismund himself laid
siege to Smolensk. The people refused to submit ;
the voievode Shein defended the town so well that
Sigismund found it necessary to call all Poles to his
banner. Zapieha very reluctantly left Troitsa and
joined Sigismund, knowing that in case of victory the
spoils would now fall to the King of Poland. The
Russians with the "little Tsar" had no choice but to
accompany the Poles, and the impostor, deserted,
sought refuge in flight. Disguised, he went south, and
later Marina and Mniszek joined him.

The condition of the nobles and commoners who had
taken the part of the impostor was pitiable. In despair
a deputation, headed bySoltikov, waited upon Sigismund
and said that the Muscovites beat their foreheads in the
dust before his majesty, and begged that his son Vladislas
would take the throne of the Tsars, making only one
condition, namely, that he should become of the ortho-
dox faith. A compact was made between Sigismund
and the delegates, by which, under certain conditions,
Vladislas was to succeed to the throne of Muscovy.

In the meantime Michael Skopin-Shooiski died in
the hour of his victories. His uncles were accused of

101

The Story of Moscow

having poisoned him. When, at last, Dmitri Shooiski
went out against Sigismund, he was beaten by Jolkievski
and betrayed by the leader of the foreign regiment.
The Poles then marched on to Moscow, and thither-
ward also came the impostor with a fresh following,
thinking the town would choose him in preference to
Vladislas. Moscow was in uproar ; the inhabitants
knew not what to do. On one hand the proclamation
of Jolkievski promised peace, abundance, and prosperity ;
on the other, the impostor with more specious promises
held fast those who had already paid court to him. Some
suggested that neither candidate should be accepted, but
a new Tsar elected by the people. Matters drifted on
until the iyth July 1609 when, after the result of a
meeting at Serphukov became known, the boyards and
citizens together most humbly requested Vasili Shooiski
to abdicate, because " he caused Christian blood to be
shed and was not successful in his government." He
retired to his private dwelling and subsequently became
a monk in the Chudov Monastery.

When the boyards had to choose between the Pole
and the impostor, some wished to restore Shooiski to
power. For the time being the Council was content to
enforce an oath of fealty to it, and to await the coming
of Jolkievski, then at Mojaisk.

Sigismund had determined upon securing the throne
for himself, and Jolkievski had a difficult part to play.
The Russians elected an embassy to Sigismund ; it con-
sisted of those who were most likely to oppose the
Polish supremacy : then, the better to guard against the
impostor, the Poles were requested to garrison the
Kremlin. The dissidents were thus got out of the
town, and the key to the stronghold of the empire was
given into the hands of the Poles. The Muscovites pro-
gressed so slowly with their negotiations that Jolkievski
left Gonsievski in command and returned to Smolensk,
i O2

The Troublous Times

taking Shooiski with him. The Patriarch alone remained
inexorable. He protested against the Polish occupa-
tion and refused all attempts at compromise. More, he
was unceasing in his attempts to awaken the Muscovites
to their duty, to their religion, their country and them-
selves. His attitude was most irritating to the boyards
favouring the Poles and to the officers of the garrison,
for the indomitable prelate, deprived of the wherewithal
to write, called out loudly to the people to revolt. The
boyard Soltikov, enraged by his repeated refusals to sign
the submission, struck at him with a dagger, but the cross
of the prelate warded off the blow. "The cross is my
only weapon that I have against thee, cursed one ! " he
called, and the garrison did their best to prevent the
people from entering the cathedral to hear him. Cast
in prison, he still found means to inflame the populace.

The "little Tsar," after the alliance between the Poles
and Muscovites was accomplished, withdrew to Kaluga.
Soon afterwards he was murdered ; he left Marina and
a son, but neither now were of importance to Russia.

Sigismund wanted Smolensk reunited to Poland ;
the delegates wanted Vladislas in Moscow at once.
Sigismund delayed. He tried what he could do with
Smolensk ; when the secretary Tomila was asked if he
would surrender the town, he answered, " If I were
to do it, not only would God and Muscovites curse
me, but the earth would open and swallow me."
Others were not so honest. The King was besieged
by applicants for favours and rewards in return for
services rendered, or to be rendered. In the Kremlin,
the boyards denounced each other to the commandant,
Galitzin and Vorontski were arrested ; others lost
what little prestige remained to them.

Hermogen succeeded in getting two letters circulated ;
both were calls to the faithful to rise against the Poles.
They excited indignation, and at last Liapunov started

103

The Story of Moscow

out from Riazan with an army and arrived before
Moscow. The Poles besought Hermogen to order
this force to disperse. He refused and defied the
Poles to do their worst.

In 1611 matters quickly became worse. As long
as Jolkievski was in the Kremlin, Russians and Poles
were at peace with each other, but Gonsievski was not
so successful. Some Poles were so foolish as to
mock the orthodox worshippers, and although severely
punished, the circumstance roused the Muscovites to
action. There were several riots, but these were
quelled, and the measures the Poles took to ensure
their own safety irritated the citizens still more.
Hatred increased day by day ; the position of the
Poles became critical. As Holy Week approached,
Gonsievski fearing trouble forbade the usual cere-
monies. This so offended the people that he was
forced to give way. The critical period passed
with one or two unimportant risings, when suddenly
a quarrel broke out with the carters, who had been
asked to haul cannons into position and had refused.
Soon the fighting became general in the town. Prince
Pojarski, with the advance guard of the Russian army,
had just arrived on the Sretenka when the Poles and
Germans fell ruthlessly upon the citizens. The
massacre lasted an hour or more, some seven thousand
being killed. The alarm bells were ringing, and the
crowd at last was chased from the Kitai Gorod
when the Poles who followed further were driven
back by the cannon of Pojarski. The Poles and
foreigners had then to entrench themselves and, to
clear the neighbourhood, the Poles fired the town.
The conflagration spread rapidly and lasted three days.
The Russians abandoned the burning town ; the Bielo
Gorod was destroyed, and much of the Kitai Gorod
also ; the dwellings and warehouses of the foreign
I0 4

'The Troublous Times

merchants were consumed, and the "English factory"
lost several of its members. Some went into the
cellars and were suffocated, the survivors made a dash
for the Kremlin, and were helped over the wall by
the Poles, where their position was precarious, for they
were amidst a town in flames in a foreign country,
among a people in revolt against the garrison. Some
vestiges of this fire are still found occasionally when
excavating old vaults full of charred wood and
burned bricks whilst the wall of the Kitia Gorod
itself is said to bear evidence in several places of the
fire that for days raged round it, and vitrified the
bricks and tiles of its battlements and machecoules.
When the news of the disaster in Moscow reached Sigis-
mund he sent the delegates and hostages as prisoners
to Marienburg. Shortly afterwards Smolensk capitu-
lated : the brave Shein was tortured for holding out so
long, then Sigismund returned to Warsaw and led the
ex-Tsar Shooiski in triumph through the streets. He
delayed in hastening needed reinforcements to the
besieged garrison in the Kremlin of Moscow, counting
those that reached it during the conflagration sufficient.

During Easter week Liapunov arrived ; he was
closely followed by Zarutski with Don- Cossacks and
Prince Troubetskoi with the levies from Kaluga. The
Russian forces camped on the ashes of the Bielo Gorod
and, if the leaders had been united and vigilant, success
might have been theirs. Day by day the situation
became more dangerous for the beleaguered Poles
obliged to make frequent sorties for food, and losing
men on each occasion. Zapieha made an attempt to
relieve the garrison but failed ; the 100,000 Russians
round the Kremlin kept him away, but themselves
were unable to carry the fortress by assault and too
lax to starve the enemy out.

Gonsievski did well. Threats failing to move the

105

'The Story of Moscow

stubborn Hermogen, a letter was written to the leader
of the Cossacks to the effect that Liapunov intended
to ruin them. They treacherously killed him ; the
cause of Russia seemed lost, for there was no longer
a leader in whom all could trust, but impostors and
intriguers beyond count. The Cossacks determined
to fight for their own hand ; the nobles and boyards
held aloof, save those with the Poles in the Kremlin.
Zapieha revictualled the garrison ; Sweden threatened
Novgorod, and called the heir-apparent Tsar of Russia ;
a fresh usurper found a following at Pskov ; Cossacks,
Poles and brigands of different nationalities overran the
country, pillaged towns and burned villages, and during
that winter of 1611-12 food was so scarce that "men
devoured each other." There was no Sovereign re-
cognised, no chief authority, no law. From time to
time the Archimandrite Denis, and his able seconder
Abraham Palitizin, sent letters to the different towns
urging the people to rise, retake Moscow, and save
the holy relics. Hermogen was starving imprisoned
in the Kremlin ; the Poles allowed the ex-patriarch
Ignatius to act in his stead. Moscow was powerless.
The other towns commenced to govern themselves and
to raise local forces for their own protection.

The high priest Sabbas made a stirring appeal to
the people to unite and deliver their fatherland. His
eloquence moved the citizens of Nijni-Novgorod to
tears. He called on the faithful " to assert their unity,
join together to defend the pure and true religion of
Christ, free the holy cathedral of the Blessed Virgin,
and recover the sainted remains of the miracle workers
of Moscow."

An elder of the province, one Cosma Minin, by trade

a butcher, exhorted his neighbours to initiate the rising.

His appeal was, " Orthodox ! If we wish to save our

country, do not fear to sacrifice our goods, to sell our

1 06

The Troublous Times

possessions, aye, even to pledge our wives and children
if need be, and find a commander faithful to our religion
and capable of leading us, then will victory be ours ! "

The most suitable leader seemed to Minin to be the
Prince Pojarski who had fought at Moscow and been
wounded in the fray. He lived near by on his estate
in Suzdal, and to him Minin went and offered the
command of the volunteering peasants. Pojarski had
shown no strong partisanship, had sought favours of
no one, and was willing to fight for the general good.
These provincials were undoubtedly in earnest; a three
days' fast was enjoined and made obligatory for all,
even suckling babes. When the troops began to gather
together, in the spring of 1612, the Poles and boyards
in the Kremlin became desperate, and once more
ordered Hermogen to command the leaders to disperse
their forces. He refused ; and in the days of dire
necessity that followed he died, starved to death, and
was buried within the Chudov Monastery.

Prince Pojarski advanced very slowly towards
Moscow : it appeared to be that he was waiting for
an assembly general at Yaroslavl to elect a tsar, fearing
without a sovereign the Russian provincial troops would
not act together against so many enemies, native and
foreign.

The garrison of the Kremlin, now commanded by
Struss, was ill-provisioned. The Cossacks had retired
to the south-east, Zarutski's intention being to beat up
reinforcements and re-attack with the followers of the
" little Tsar " and secure the throne for Marina and
her son. From the west, Khodkevich came with re-
inforcements and provisions to the relief of Struss.
Pojarski arrived on the 1 8th August, but was separated
from Troubetskoi. On the 2ist August Khodkevich
arrived on that side of the town guarded by Pojarski,
whose troops therefore were the first to be attacked.

107

The Story of Moscow

On the 23rd the poles and Pojarski engaged in a fierce
battle. Later Troubetskoi led his men also against the
Poles, and with him went a part of the Cossack army.
Khodkevich was driven back, but fought stubbornly.
The next day he renewed his attempt to reach the
Kremlin. Pojarski begged Troubetskoi to join forces,

DOM ROMANOF

and Abraham Politzin persuaded the Cossacks to assist
in defeating the Polish relief. Attacked on both sides
simultaneously, Khodkevich retreated from the com-
manding position he had occupied ; then the sudden
appearance of Minin, with a few hundred peasants who
1 08

The Troublous Times

fought most savagely, turned the retreat into a rout, and
the Polish treasure fell into the hands of the Cossacks.
After this victory Pojarski and Troubetskoi joined
forces and formed a provisional administration. The
defenders of the Kremlin were in despair. They were
short of food and ammunition, and the fact that 300
Poles had forced their way through the Russian ranks
and joined the garrison -was in no way advantageous.
Soon they deserted the Kitai Gorod and took refuge
in the Kremlin, holding it a month longer in hope that
relief would reach them. The usual horrors of a long
siege were manifest; not only did they devour every-
thing that was eatable, but even gnawed at their own
flesh and disinterred corpses. The boyards with their
wives and families were sent out of the Kremlin and
at last the Poles were compelled by hunger to surrender.
On the 25th October the Muscovites made their entry
into the Kremlin, and after much thanksgiving and
praise, proceeded to the election of a new ruler.
Sigismund with an army was coming to the relief of
the Poles, but was unable to subdue the towns on his
way. His ambassadors to the Muscovites were not
even received by the victorious leaders. The Swedes
were informed that no one of their race would be
elected. Boyards intrigued for Galitzin, for Shooiski,
and for others. The provincial army was determined
that there should be a general assembly for the election
of the Tsar, and the candidate most favoured by all
classes seemed to be the young Michael Theodorovich
Romanof.

Old men remembered Anastasia Romanof, the first
wife of Ivan the Terrible ; younger ones had nothing
but praise for Philaret, the present head of the family ;
all pitied the persecutions and hardships its members
had suffered because of their relationship to the old
royal line if unanimity was necessary, no candidate

109

The Story of Moscow

had so good a chance of securing it as had the young
Romanof. On February 2ist, 1613, the electors
met around the Lobnce Mesto in the Grand Square.
The crowd shouted lustily for Mikhail Theodorovich
Romanof, and to the general wish the electors gave the
only possible expression. By some it is thought that
the crown was offered to Pojarski who declined it; it
is a fiction of latter day poets, as are Dmitriev's lines :

" What what shall be his recompense ?
Look ! He who made the invaders bleed
And Moscow and his country freed,
He modest as courageous he
Takes the bright garland from his brow,
And to a youth he bends him now,
He bends an aged and hero-knee
< Thou art of royal blood,' he said,
' Thy father is in our foeman's hand ;
Wear then this garland on thy head
And bless O bless, our father-land ! ' "

The new dynasty was founded, but quite early, if the
tradition be true, was likely to have been extinguished.
The Poles on learning the news endeavoured to put the
young Romanof to death ; an attempt to waylay him
was frustrated by the heroism of the peasant Sussanin
who, in the district of Kostroma, gave his " life for the
Tsar " by leading astray in the forest the murderous
band searching for him. Historians now say that he
had no opportunity of so doing, but the fact remains
that for some service rendered the Romanofs the
Sussanins for many generations enjoyed rare privileges,
and if the tale be not true, it has at least resulted in
the Russians obtaining from the theme their finest opera,
Glinka's " Life for the Tsar."

The " time of trouble " for Moscow was not over
on the appointment of a Tsar, but the Muscovites
entered upon a very glorious era with a Tsar of their
own choosing,
no

CHAPTER VII
Moscow of the Tsars

" Mid forests deep the turrets gleaming
Of Moscow's gorgeous Kremlin stand,
Beauteous golden-crown !
Peerless white-walled town ! "

ALL RUSSIAN POETS.

VA/RITERS in the west still ignore the history of
Russia previous to the reign of Peter the Great,
attributing to that monarch reforms he did not initiate,
and a policy of which he was not the author and
followed but indifferently. The real makers of the
Russian nation were the wise Romanofs who preceded
the tyrant Peter. The history of the period may be
briefly recounted, apart from the story of the con-
struction of the great town the Moscow of the Tsars.
It was under the Tsar Michael that the relations of
Russia with the west became general ; under Alexis,
who succeeded him in 1645, not only were the Poles
driven back and other enemies conquered, but those
great social and economic reforms were introduced,
the working of which subsequently " westernised "
Russia. Theodore during his short reign of five years
successfully continued what his father had commenced.
It was the claims made on behalf of his half-brother
Peter that caused the hands of the clock to be set
back. The story of Peter is well known, but its teach-
ing has been often misinterpreted. To obtain the truth

ni

The Story of Moscow

let the Moscow of Theodore Alexeivich be compared
with the Russia of Peter, or of any of his eighteenth
century successors. The one exhibits the highest
normal achievement of purely Muscovite ideals, and
reveals the capacity of Russia to absorb what is nearest
akin to its own spirit from among the more progressive
motives of the west. Peter crudely grafted a coarse
imitation of western forms upon a rarer stock ; stagnation
and corruption were the result. It was not until the
nineteenth century, and the complete abandonment of
Peter's policy, that Russia once more advanced towards
civilisation.

A country devastated by foreign invaders and
surrounded with bitter and relentless enemies ; a
territory wasted by internecine warfare ; the cinders
of a capital ; an empty treasury ; a famished and
pestilent ridden people such was the gift of the
electors in 1613 to Michael Theodorovich Romanof,
a boy of sixteen, whose mother was in a convent and
father in a foreign prison. No wonder that he hesitated,
and that his friends urged prudence. The people were
honest, and Michael exacted proofs of their earnestness.
Slowly he advanced towards Moscow, urging his
subjects to prepare suitable apartments for himself
and his mother in the spoiled ruins of the Kremlin,
to store afresh the warehouses with provisions and
replenish the treasury. The boyards answered that
they had already prepared the palace of Ivan for
himself, and a suite in the convent of the Ascension
for his mother, but it was impossible to restore the
Golden Palace and terem of the Tsaritsa Irene, for
there was no money, carpenters were lacking, the
buildings roofless, and the stairs, corridors, doors,
windows, and all furnishings were no longer in ex-
istence ; it would be necessary to rebuild, and time
pressed. Michael was not satisfied ; the palaces must

112

Moscow of the Tsars

be made fit for habitation, if materials were lacking
those of other buildings must be used, and as for the
apartments in the convent, " it will not suit my mother
to occupy them." Ultimately the Tsar's behests were
executed, and in May he made his state entry, more
than two months after his election to the throne.

Both at home and abroad his position was regarded
as precarious. Zarutski, who had with him Marina
Mniszek, the widow of the false Dmitri, and her son,
held Kazan and ruled the districts bordering the Volga.
He was ultimately captured, and executed in Moscow.
Marina and her son were also taken ; according to
native writers she "died in prison of chagrin" ; accord-
ing to foreigners in Russia at that time, she and her son
were thrust beneath the ice on the river Oka. Sweeden
continued the war, and would not relinquish her claim
to the throne. It terminated after Gustavus Adolphus
was repulsed at Pskov, and failed to take Narva. A
Swedish officer states that " from their youth up, the
Muscovites are inured to continuous labour and much
fasting, and can make shift long with meal, salt and
water only. They hold it to be a deadly and un-
pardonable sin to surrender a fortress, and prefer to die
happily for their Tsar and country." The Swedes
contemplated a long siege, but by the good offices
of the Dutch and English an armistice of three months
was agreed to, and in 1617 a lasting peace concluded on
terms disadvantageous to Russia. An army of Poles
was marching upon Moscow, when it was re-inforced
by Ronashevich-Salidachni at the head of 20,000
Cossacks ; Michael repulsed their attack on Moscow,
but, anxious to secure his father's release, agreed to
relinquish Smolensk, so a peace to endure fourteen
years and six months was thereupon made. Im-
mediately after his coronation the Tsar sent envoys to
England, Germany and the Netherlands, seeking their

H 113

The Story of Moscow

assistance in securing peace. The English promised
a loan of ; 100,000 and paid 16,000 roubles only
towards it ; but King James prevented Scots taking
service in Poland against Russia, and the Tsar obtained
his munitions of war from the English factory at
Archangel. In such fashion was a respite obtained, so
that undivided attention might be given to establishing
good order within the Tsar's Empire. Surely no ruler
started with greater disadvantages than did Michael.
To the inexperience of youth must be added a lack of
competent advisers. The old hereditary aristocracy
had for the most part disappeared ; those members who
survived had taken sides with either the second im-
postor or the Poles, and in them he dared not trust.
There remained only appointed military and civil
officers, boyards, whose titles were not hereditary,
secretaries, and gentlemen of the council. In Russia,
where there was no general instruction and little learn-
ing, all was left to a governing caste, composed of men
who, from their noble birth, had the entree to the
court and were conversant with all affairs of state ;
it was this " caste " Michael lacked. The men, able
men, who were not accustomed to rule, did not seek
responsible posts. Even Pojarski, the saviour of the
country, said to Vasili Galitzin, " If we had found such
a leader as you, Vasili Vasilievich, all the country
would have at once flocked to you, and it would not
have devolved upon me to direct so onerous a task."
The times of trouble had forced simple citizens to
occupy positions of importance ; such were the butcher
Cosma Minin, Zarutski, Troubetskoi, Liapunov and
Fedka Andronov. To none of the humble born
leaders were the degenerate nobles prepared to grant
precedence or even equality ; whilst on the other hand,
affairs of state could no longer be entrusted to those
who had betrayed the country, or by past conduct,

Moscow of the Tsars

proved themselves incapable. Squabbles for precedence
at once recommenced.

When Dmitri Mikhailovich Pojarksi, the great
liberator, was created a boyard, one Gabriel Pushkin
threw himself at the Tsar's feet and pleaded that the
thing might not be, for " his own family was in no
way inferior to that of Pojarski," who, as boyard,
would be appointed a higher place than he himself
occupied at court. These nobles could not, or would
not, understand that services to the state should be
considered. Birth alone was to count, for these nobles
to remain side by side with a person of inferior birth
was considered an ignominy to which death itself was
preferable. On the occasion of the Tsar's coronation,
there were several disputes for priority of place, not-
withstanding that the Tsar had ordered that during the
ceremonies all ranks were to be discarded. Before
the coronation, in the palace of the Golden Seal
Prince Tretiakov, the secretary, nominated those who
were to bear the regalia. " Prince Mstislavski will
throw the golden coins upon the Tsar ; the new
boyard, Ivan Nikitich Romanof, will carry the crown of
Monomachus ; Prince Dmitri Troubetskoi, the sceptre ;
the new boyard, Prince Pojarski, the globe ! ' '
Troubetskoi took offence that he had to cede his place
to a Romanof, albeit a relative of his sovereign. The
Tsar answered, " It may be that your rank is higher
than that of Ivan, but he is my uncle, and you must
give place to him at a time when the order of rank is
not to be observed." This appeased Troubetskoi,
but later, one Boris Likof, invited to the table of
the Tsar, would not cede his place until the Tsar
personally intervened. On the next occasion he failed
to attend, although the Tsar twice sent for him. Each
time he sent the same answer, " I am ready to yield my
life on the scaffold, but allow a Romanof to take preced-

"5

T'he Story of Moscow

ence of a Likof I will not!" Sometimes these quarrels
embarrassed the Tsar on occasions of state, as when, at
the reception of the Persian envoys, his body-guard dis-
appeared. One hid himself away so quickly that he could
not be found ; another feigned indisposition ; another was
dragged into the presence coupled with Prince Romo-
danovski ; Cherchugov complained of Romodanovski,
and Prince Pojarski also took offence, and upbraided
Cherchugov for dishonouring his rank by his alliance with
Romodanovski. The Tsar ordered Cherchugov to be
beaten, and determined to avoid such annoyances in future
by choosing his bodyguard from among the lesser nobles,
who could not plead the privileges of their ancestors.
When Telepnef and Larionof were appointed, one at
once took offence and pointed out to the Tsar that he
was a freeman of Moscow, whereas the other was but
a secretary ! Such were the earlier troubles of the
boy-Tsar, who longed for the advice of his father in
such matters of trifling importance ; he, on his return to
Moscow, ruled the court with commanding adroitness.
This matter of precedence came to the front again
in the next reign, when Alexis settled it once and for
all. Hereditary rank was based upon the achievements
of one's ancestors, which, with the titles and honours
of the successful, were enumerated in the manuscript-
books treasured by each family. In practice no noble
would accept an office inferior to that occupied by his
illustrious forefathers. Often incapable as military
leaders, this meant ruin to the state. Alexis, after suf-
ficient experience of the disasters the system entailed,
proposed the abolition of hereditary rank, and petitioned
the Church to pronounce upon his finding that " pre-
cedence was an institution invented by the devil, for the
purpose of destroying Christian love and of increasing
the hatred of brother for brother." In due course the
Patriarch declared that in the opinion of the Church,
116

Moscow of the T'sars

" precedence was a system opposed to God, and
intended to cause confusion and hatred." Thereupon

BELVEDERE OF THE TEREM

the nobles were commanded to deliver up their " golden
books of honour and great deeds," and the records
were burned, so that henceforth precedence depended
upon court and military rank alone.

117

The Story of Moscow

When Michael ascended the throne the two most
powerful factions of the nobility were those headed
respectively by the Miloslavksis and the Soltikovs,
between whom no love was lost. To obtain greater
influence and power they intrigued for the marriage of
the Tsar. Michael's choice was one Marie Kholopov,
to whom he was betrothed. Before marriage she was
drugged at the instigation of the Soltikovs, and her
illness represented as incurable. She, and all her
relatives, were then banished to Siberia for " attempt-
ing to deceive the Tsar," and remained in exile seven
years, when the Patriarch discovered the intrigue.
This resulted in the fall of the Soltikovs from power,
and the return of the Khlopovs to Nijni-Novgorod.
Michael next chose Marie Dolgoruki, but she died a
few months after marriage, and twelve, months later,
Michael was urged to marry again. The earlier
method of selecting a bride was resorted to upon this
occasion, and the Tsar's intention made known through-
out the empire. According to S. W. Glinka what
took place is as follows :

" On the morrow the Tsar was to make known publicly
whom he had chosen as his bride. That evening the carriages
of the palace brought to his residence the marriageable daughters
of all the noble and illustrious families who had gathered in
Moscow for this election. These young ladies of high degree
all wore the vestments provided by the Tsar, and were accom-
panied by their mothers, or a near relative. In turn they were
presented to the Tsar's mother, Martha Ivanovna, and the
mothers and relatives then returned to their homes ; the young
ladies, attended by their maids remained, and donned the
nightdresses they had brought with them. The chambers
to which they were appointed contained two rows of beds.
Towards midnight, the Tsar, accompanied by his mother, went
in to examine the candidates. The scrutiny finished, he
returned to his own apartments, and his mother anxiously
inquired upon whom his choice had fallen. To her surprise,
Michael indicated the maid of one of the ladies. Martha
Ivanovna could not believe her ears. She earnestly begged her

118

Moscow of the Tsars

son to reflect, before offending the pride and dignity of the
princes, nobles and boyards by such a choice. Then she
asked a definite answer, for, before the sun rose, it would have
to be declared officially, before the Patriarch and the clergy
assembled in the cathedral of the Assumption for that purpose.
Michael answered, ' I have obeyed you and the will of God in
accepting the crown. Never have I dared to act contrary to
your wishes. You have always been my counsellor and my
support: T will do as you wish . . . but . . . but . . . never
. . . never . . . will I choose another ; nor love anyone else.
It is my fate to be unhappy ! I lost my wife a few months
after my marriage now, to-day, I am deprived of the bride
of my choice. She is of humble birth ; perhaps she is poor ;
may be, unhappy. But I also have suffered -I too have been
persecuted ! ' and the Tsar burst into tears. Martha Ivanovna
could not resist this appeal. ' My son, my son 1 ' she cried,
'have I not suffered as well? My husband languishing in
exile ; the murderous swords of cruel enemies directed towards
you ! Heaven has protected you, has chosen you to rule this
realm. May the will of God be done ! I will not thwart
your desire. Take for wife the one whom you have chosen.'

" Thereupon Martha Ivanovna at once sought out what she
could respecting the young girl her son had noticed. She was
informed that her name was Eudoxia, the daughter of Lucian
Stephanovich Striechnef, a poor gentleman of Mojaisk, and
herself a distant relative of the lady in whose service she was.
Just as her mistress was haughty, proud and overbearing, so
was the maid docile and modest. Michael himself had had
to bear oppression. Ill-treatment he hated. He felt for
Eudoxia, and chose her because she was ill-used.

"Then Eudoxia was led into the Tsar's apartments, was
richly clothed, and presented with jewels. Martha Ivanovna
called her daughter, and the Tsar himself called God to witness
that she was his bride. The Patriarch, Philaret, gave his
blessing to his son, both as father and as head of the church.
The clergy prayed that the pride of the wicked might be
humbled and the virtuous protected. The citizens were pleased
and shouted ' Long live Michael and Eudoxia ! ' and there was
general rejoicing. Then the daughters of the princes, and
nobles, and boyards, were presented to Eudoxia and made
their homage. In her confusion and modesty she would not
allow them to kiss her hand, but cordially embraced each maid.
When it came to the turn of her own relation, the frightened
girl threw herself at the feet of Eudoxia and begged for mercy
and pardon. Eudoxia bent down and said, ' You also forgive

119

The Story of Moscow

me! if in any way I have offended.' Forthwith the lovers
were formally betrothed, and, as all the world knows, Michael
married Eudoxia, and they lived happy ever afterwards."

Another story, quite as like a fairy tale as this is,
concerns itself with Eudoxia's father, whom the am-
bassadors of the Tsar found at the plough. Lucian
was not surprised at his daughter's good fortune ; he
saw in it only the hand of Providence. When he for-
sook his thatched cottage for a suite in the palace, he
carried away with him his old clothes and other things,
which he hung on the wall of his new apartment, and
each morning uncovered them that he might not forget
his origin, and be mindful of the workers and the poor.
He lived for many years within the Kremlin, saw
Eudoxia's son, Alexis, upon the throne, and found
himself an honoured member of his own grandson's
household, and surrounded by his daughter's numerous
royal grandchildren.

The next occasion that offered for the intrigues of
those who sought court influence through a matrimonial
alliance was in 1647 when Alexis, the son of Michael
and Eudoxia, resolved to marry. Of the two hundred
noble maids assembled for his selection he chose
Euphemia Vsevolojski, who had enemies. These
arranged their plans with her maids-of-honour. When
she was attired in the royal robes, her attendants twisted
her hair so tightly that she swooned in the Tsar's pre-
sence, and the Court physician declared her to be
epileptic. She and her family were thereupon banished
to far away Tiumen in Siberia. The next year Alexis
married Marie Ilyinichna Miloslavski, who bore him
thirteen children, and died in childbed in 1669. In
his next marriage Alexis observed the letter of the
customary proceeding but disregarded its spirit. At
that time his chief counsellor was Artemon Sergievich
Matviev, a man who had commanded a foreign regiment

120

Moscow of the Tsars

in the wars and married Mary Hamilton, one of a
Scotch family resident in Moscow. Matviev had no
daughter, but living with the family was Natalia
Naryshkin, the daughter of Cyril Naryshkin, whose
brother Theodore had married a Hamilton, the niece of
Matviev's wife. Matviev made his house as attractive
as he could to the Tsar, giving western entertainments,
even to the performance of comedies and tragedies in
his private theatre. Western manners prevailed among
them ; his wife dressed in what were called " German "
clothes, and both she and her ward appeared at table
although strangers might be present. When the Tsar
visited Matviev, Natalia, a tall, shapely brunette, her-
self served him with vodka and zakuska. One day the
Tsar informed Matviev that he would find a husband
for this charming ward ; and, when the nobles were
ordered to assemble their daughters, Natalia also re-
ceived a command to attend at the palace. It was all
prearranged, but to allay suspicion a second assembly
was convened, and a final one after an interval of three
weeks. When it became known that Natalia had been
chosen, there was loud outcry, and anonymous letters
reached the Tsar. These accused Matviev of sorcery
and other dark crimes, and alleged misdemeanour on
the part of Natalia. There was the usual investiga-
tion ; the customary torture ; and postponement of
the marriage for nine months. On January the 22nd
1671 the ceremony was performed with great pomp,
and Matviev that day appointed a member of the State
Council as recompense " for the sufferings he had under-
gone in connection with the affair." Sixteen months
later May 3Oth 1672 Peter the Great was born.

Natalia Naryshkin was of Tartar descent, but her
training was western, and as tsaritsa she was able to
free some of the "twenty-seven locks" with which
the "terem" was guarded. With the accession of

121

the Romanofs there was a strong reaction from the
licence of the days of the impostors, a reaction which

KRUT1TSKI VOROT

the all powerful Philaret as patriarch did his utmost
to foster. Natalia was required to conform to the
rules made on behalf of former tsaritsas, but she
succeeded in going openly to church with her husband,
122

Moscow of the Tsars

saw plays through a latticed window, and the state
reception of foreign ambassadors from a screened loge.
In so short a time she accomplished much, but in
1676 her husband died, and she retired with her
children to a palace near the foreign suburb of Moscow,
and there the young prince, Peter, was raised amid
rough surroundings, for the Matvievs were exiled and
Natalia barely tolerated so near the Kremlin.

Theodore II. was most scholarly of the early Tsars ;
he was educated by Polish teachers, and, during his
short reign the first public schools in Moscow were
founded under his patronage. He separated the
military from the civil departments ; in military matters
abolished precedence, and so altered legal procedure
as to bring justice within reach of the people. He
built the episcopal Palace of the Monastery of St Cyril
at the Krutitski Vorot, and was particularly active in
adding to the beautiful churches of Moscow. To him
is due that gem of Muscovite ecclesiastical architecture,
the church of the Nativity and Flight, in the Mala
Dmitrovka (T>. page 181 ). With an eye for the pictur-
esque, he laid out a pleasure-garden in the Kremlin and
another on the river front by making a vaulted embank-
ment. Further away the slopes towards the river
were planted with ornamental trees ; medicinal herbs
were largely cultivated, and the first hot-houses appeared
in Moscow. Private dwellings in the Kremlin were
demolished to afford accomodation for public buildings,
and particularly for homes for the aged and sick, for
the Tsar resembled his father and grandfather in his
care of those who had served him, and in well-doing
he was tireless. He disliked pomp and ceremony,
restricted the ordinary citizens of noble birth to two
horses in their carriages, and reduced the number used
by others on State occasions ; from his ascent to the
throne the court pageantry declined.

123

The Story of Moscow

In the seventeenth century almost the whole of the
Kremlin was occupied with buildings appertaining
either to the state or the superior clergy. The
churches are still sufficiently in evidence, but such of
the old dwellings as remain have to be approached
through more recent buildings. The Granovitaia
(Facetted) Palace of Ivan III. (1491) presents a
facade to the Sobornia Ploshchad, but this in no
way reveals its antiquity. The constant renewal of
the exterior which is indispensable to preservation in
the destructive climate of Moscow, to some extent
accounts for this ; and the " terem," the outside of
which may be viewed from the quadrangle on which
stands the old church " Spass na Boru," is equally
disappointing in this particular. Even to see the
interiors the visitors must pass through the Great
Palace, with which these old dwellings are now in-
corporated. The site occupied by the eastern end of
the Great Palace is that upon which, from the founding
of Moscow, the residences of its rulers have been
again and again erected, but they faced the east, not
south. The wooden palaces of the early Romanofs
have entirely disappeared ; Peter the Great removed
from Moscow whatever would serve to enrich his
new capital, and allowed the old royal residences to
decay. It is during the present century only that
they have been restored to their earlier grandeur.
The palace built by the Empress Elizabeth, and
occupied by Napoleon, was destroyed by the fire of
1812.

The visitor will first procure a billet d? admission at
the Chamberlain's office in Commandant Street (see
plan), turn to the left on leaving the building, and
walking towards the south, at the end of the street
pass under the Winter Garden which connects the
Treasury with the Great Palace. He will then be
124

A'Camnon

KREMLIN

References
-Entrances ..... -Footpaths

Nicholas Gate

Redeemer Gate

Secret Gate

Borovitski Gate

Trinity Gate

Belfry

Cathedral of the Assumption

,, ,, Archangels

,, Annunciation

Granovitaya Falace
Grand Palace
Terem

St Saviours in the Wood
Ch. of the Holy Vestments
Ch. of St Saviour behind the Golden Gates
Ch. of the Nativity of the Virgin
Ch. of St Lazarus
Ch. of the Resurrection
Ch. of St Catherine the Martyr
Ch of the Apostles
The Synod

Ch. of John the Baptist
Ch. of the Annunciation
Ch. of Coustantine and Helen
Chudov Monastery

Convent of Ascension

Pleasure Palace

Treasury

Tsarevich's Appartments

Place of the Boyards

Grand Entrance

Ch. of St Alexis

Cathedral Square

Tsar's Square

Monument to Alexander II.

Alarm Bell

Tsarina's Tower

Towerol Constantino and Helen

Oubliette

Water Tower

Ch. of St Michael

Ch. of Acsension

Ch. of the Miracles

Hall of Catherine II.

Ch. of St Catherine

Ch. of St Peter and Paul

Ch. of St Philip

Senate Square

State Court-yard

Arsenal Tower

Moscow of the Tsars

in the State Courtyard ; on the left a gateway com-
municates with the quadrangle in which is the old
church " Spass na Boru ; " the last door on the right
is the public entrance to the Treasury. Traversing
the courtyard and turning to the left he will reach
the grand entrance of the Great Palace and enter
there. Passing from the vestibule by the escalier
d'honneur the Hall of St George will be reached.
It contains sixteen allegorical groups commemorative
of the conquests by Russia of Perm, Kazan, Siberia,
Kamchatka, Tartary, the Caucasus, etc. The military
order of St George was founded by the Empress
Catherine II. in 1769, but the effigy of St George,
on his white horse, slaying the Dragon, as already
mentioned is of Norse origin and was the device used by
Yaroslaf the Great in the eleventh century and definitely
adopted as the arms of the principality of Moscow by
Dmitri after his victory over the Tartars at Kulikova
(1380); it figured on the coins, and April 23 (old
style) this Saint's day, is observed throughout Russia.
The names inscribed on the wall are those of the
individuals admitted to the order, and of the regiments
likewise decorated ; in short, this Hall of St George
Pobiedonosets (the Conqueror) is the Russian Valhalla.
The adjoining Hall of Alexander Nevski, is remarkable
apart from its richness and beauty, for the six pictures
by Miiller illustrating the chief events in the life of the
Saint : beyond is the Throne room Griffins, the device
of the Romanofs, conspicuous in the decorations and
next the Hall of St Catherine, the state room of the
Tsaritsa. The older palaces will be reached directly
from the Hall of St Vladimir, or, after passing through
the personal apartments of the Tsar, by the Holy Cor-
ridor, so named because there the clergy attend to
conduct the Tsar to state services in the Cathedrals.
It dates from the reign of Ivan III. ( i 5th cent.) and

125

The Story of Moscow

is, in short, a continuation of that terrace which fronts
the eastern side of the Great Palace, and has its
counterpart in the principal approach to every old-
fashioned Russian house. The
Krasnoe Kriltso how hateful the
vulgar, and absolutely incorrect,
translation, "Red Steps!" is
simply the state entrance to
the reception rooms, in con-
tradistinction to the Post-
yelnre Kriltso (Back stairs)
or private entrance, com-
'jf| municating with the personal
apartments of the sovereign,
or boyard. To comprehend
the importance of the Terem
rightly, it must be remembered
that actually the state apartments
of the sovereign were where the
Great Palace now is, and that this
corridor served both as a rendez-
vous for courtiers and the Tsar's way of communication
from his private to his official suites. Another staircase,
to which the boyards had not access, led directly from
the inner court, near the Postyelnoe Kriltso, to the
Terem. The state suite in the seventeenth century
comprised : an audience chamber (the middle Golden
Palace) ; a smaller Golden Palace, once the audience
chamber of the Tsaritsa ; the Stolovia Izba, or saloon
for fetes ; the Krestavia, for the celebration of solemn
ceremonies by the clergy and household ; the Otvietna
Palace, where illustrious visitors were entertained ; and
the Higher Golden Palace, a council chamber for the
consideration of grave questions of state. For most
of these purposes the buildings still in existence have
served temporarily at different periods.
126

KRASNOE KRILTSO

Moscow of the Tsars

Descending seven steps from this corridor, the Palace
of the Tsaritsa Irene, or lesser Golden Palace, is
entered. Sneguirev is of opinion that this was originally
the apartment of the Archbishop. The Slavonic
inscription over the portal is merely to the effect that
the decorations were made by order of Tsar Alexis
Mikhailovich, and restored on the coronation of the
Emperor Paul. It was here that in 1653 the Tsaritsa
Marie Ilyinichna received the Tsaritsa of Georgia, and
later the Tsaritsa Natalia Kyrilevna received the homage
of the Princes of Kasimof and Siberia. On the vaulted
roof are representations of Olga's journey to Constanti-
nople, Helena obtaining the true cross, the Council
convened by the Emperor Theophilus the Iconoclast,
and portraits of the Tsaritsas, Irene, Theodora, Sophia,
and Olga. A vaulted corridor leads to an entrance
from the square behind the Uspenski Sobor. It is
called the " Passage of the Patriarchs " from the seven
portraits of the Russian Patriarchs which adorn the walls.

Almost upon a level with the Holy Corridor is the
entrance to the Old Church of the Nativity of the
Virgin, immediately below which is the Chapel of the
Resurrection of St Lazarus (see page 45), the oldest
existing building in Moscow. It is only an obscure
crypt, but in one of the round pillars, facing the
ikonastas is a niche which probably served as the loge
of the reigning prince. The entrance with an old
inscription was but recently discovered. The Church
of the Nativity of the Virgin, dates from i 393, when
the Tsaritsa Eudoxia, wife of Dmitri Donskoi, erected
the first structure on the side of the older Church of
St Lazarus. It was destroyed by lightning in 1414,
burned in 1473, fell in 1480, and in 1514 was rebuilt
by Vasili Ivanovich, and probably again reconstructed
early in the seventeenth century. It then became one
of the churches of the palace, and has remained the

127

The Story of Moscow

particular church of the Tsaritsas. The old stoves
are of an ancient Russian model ; according to tradition
the Tsaritisas in bygone days were placed upon one of
these stoves during their confinements. The ikonostas
was injured in 1812, but has been restored and some
of the ikons are richly decorated with rubies and other
gems of great value.

Above the lesser Golden Palace is a chapel of small
dimensions, known commonly as the " Cathedral of Our
Saviour behind the Golden Gates," actually dedicated
to " Our Saviour on High " ( Verkhospasski) ; its other
name is due to the fact that the entrance to it is on the
far, or private, side of the gilt wicket that barred the
entrance to the Terem. It was built in 1635 by t ^ ie
Bajenko Ogurtsev, a Russian architect employed by
the Tsar Michael, and was restored by his grandson,
Theodore II., and many times subsequently. In the
seventeenth century it was the private chapel of the
sovereigns. In it the sons of Alexis were baptised ;
here it was that in times of danger, as during the revolt
of the Strelsti (see ch. x. and p. 130) the royal princes
sought refuge, and from here Ivan Naryshkin went to
his murder by the Strelsti who were clamouring for his
head. The church is closed by three doors all
modelled after the " gilt wicket " ; it possesses a mag-
nificent ikonostas of chiselled silver, the gift of the
Countess Soltikov, which marvellously escaped the
plunderers of 1812. Its ikons include one of the
Saviour, " not made with hands " (i>. chapter ix. p.
182), said to have been brought to Moscow in 1472 by
Sophia Paleologus, and one of Lupin, the centurion,
the patron saint of the Romanofs. There is also an
old ikonastas in the adjoining chapel of St John the
Baptist. On the north side of the Verkhospasski
Church, also on this third storey, is the Seventeenth
Century Church of the Resurrection, on the threshold
128

Moscow of the Tsars

of which, if tradition may be believed, Athanasius
Naryshkin was struck down by the Streltsi in 1682.
It is lighter than ordinary Russian Churches, lofty, with
an ogival vaulted roof and almost entirely covered
with frescoes. The western door has representations
of the eight Sybils. The mediaeval incense-burner
suspended in the centre is of foreign, probably Dutch,
origin, and apart from its own attractiveness serves
well to contrast the great differences in Western and
Russian handicraft, for the ikonostas has some excellent
relief work. The paintings at the east-end are on a
gold ground, at one period a prevalent fashion with
Russian ikon painters. The brilliant colouring, the
lavish use of gold and silver, and the bright illumination,
so unusual in Russian churches, together make this
royal chapel one of the most interesting of those in the
Kremlin. It was from the corridor leading to this
church that the first " Dmitri " is said to have been
thrown ; the window, which had been blocked up, will be
pointed out to the visitor before entering the Chapel of
the Crucifixion, which is over this corridor and on the
same level as the fourth storey of the Terem. The
interior of this chapel is very gloomy ; the floor of
black and white marble may assist in its recognition.
Its most interesting feature is the ikonostas of em-
broidery, the work of the Tsaritsas and their daughters.
The faces of the saints on the ikons are painted upon
canvas, and the vestments instead of metal are of worked
silk and other tissues. At the entrance is the private
oratory of the Tsar Alexis, and amongst other things
which will be pointed out as having some connection
with the younger members of this Tsar's family, is the
spot upon which he at one time erected a " Golgotha " ;
the cross is of cedar, pine and cypress, contributed by
three princes. This church was built in 1679 and
communicates with the " Church of the Holy Vest-
i 129

The Story of Moscow

ments," by the door to the left of the entrance, a piece of
work highly characteristic of Russian art at this period.
There are other churches and chapels which are
technically private chapels of the palace, as are also the
Cathedrals of the Assumption and Annunciation, but
these are dealt with elsewhere. Those actually within,
or communicating with the Terem, are those above
enumerated, and in addition there is the old Chapel of
St John the Baptist " in the wood," now removed to
the second floor of the tower over the Borovitski Gate.

The palaces and chapels of the Terem with their many means
of communication afforded a secure hiding place, and means
of escape would usually be found by reaching one of the
churches with their treasuries and subterranean vaults. In
the early times it was a capital offence to be found behind the
Golden Gate, but two Chamberlains who accidentally en-
countered the Tsaritsa Natalia in one of the corridors were
merely dismissed from office for a single day and reinstated ;
life was more free and easy in the days of Theodore than ever
before in Moscow. The faction intrigues and riots that
followed the succession to the throne of his brother Ivan and
half-brother Peter were chiefly the result of the unjust
treatment of the Streltsi. What took place at the palace is
soon stated. Matviev had been recalled; the Naryshkins
and Miloslavskis, the relatives of the first and second wives
of the late Tsar Alexis, were opposed to each other ; the son
of each wife sat on the throne ; Peter, the younger, had his
mother to protect him ; Ivan, the elder, his sister Sophia.
It was too good an opportunity for deciding the supremacy
of the Miloslavskis, and they having caused it to be reported
that Ivan's life was in jeopardy, the Streltsi advanced to the
Kremlin crying " Death to those who oppose royalty 1 Death
to all traitors ! " Before the gates could be closed they were
in the Kremlin, and with pikes, halberds, and partisans
thronging the state entrance and the square of the palace
itself. They wished to be sure that both Tsars were well:
they wanted the lives of the Matvievs and Naryshkins if
Ivan was not. Matviev momentarily saved the situation.
He went with Natalia, who led the Tsars one by each hand
out on to the terrace before the infuriated mob. " By God's
mercy both are well as you see," he said, and added words

"3.

Moscow of the Tsars

that soothed the mob, but all too soon he retired follow-
ing Natalia into the palace. Dolgorooki, the head of the
Streltsi, then turned to the rioters and ordered them to
be gone. He irritated them by his address ; some seized
him and threw him over the balustrade, and those below
caught him on their pikes. Another troop, partisans of
Sophia, were searching for Matviev, dragged him from the
presence of the ex-Tsaritsa and near Blagovieshchenski Sobor
he too was thrown on to the pikes of the Streltsi in the square
below, and they were not content merely with killing now,
but cut his body in morsels. Three days later, a faithful
black servant ventured forth and collected the remains for
burial. The rioters having now committed two crimes
reverted to their original determination to settle with those
opposed to Ivan. They wished particularly for the uncles of
Peter, Ivan and Athanasius Naryshkin they mistook Soltikov
for him, and the man, too frightened even to pronounce his
own name, was slain. A dwarf of the Tsaritsa's led the rioters
to the hiding place of Athanasius the altar of one of the
churches, and they killed him where they found him, and
threw the body out into the square. The mutiny lasted
several days ; the Streltsi could not find Ivan Naryshkin or
Van Gaden the doctor. The third day they again went to
the palace and demanded that Ivan should be given up to
them. Natalia pleaded for the life of her brother, the boyards
fearing for their own lives besought her to give him up,
and at last she consented. He made his last confession, and,
attended by Natalia and Sophia, carried the ikon of the virgin
before him. Hurried by the impatient boyards he courageously
left the chapel, and crossing the threshold of the Golden
Gates was at once seized by the Streltsi waiting him and
dragged to torture and execution, and this satisfied the rioters
for the time.

Richly carved doors, of a type truly Muscovite and
mediaeval, lead from the Holy Corridor to the larger
Golden Hall of the Granovitaia Palace. This building
is the work of two Italians, Marco Ruffo, and Pietro
Antonio, at the close of the fifteenth century, and has
its name of "Facetted" Palace from the trimming of the
stone blocks of the external walls to imitate some earlier
ornate wooden building. The large Hall is the old
throne room of the Tsars Vasili, Ivan " Groznoi " and

The Story of Moscow

Boris Godunov. The old custom of a state banquet
on the day of the coronation is still observed. On this
occasion, as in olden times, the Tsar is seated at a
table with such other reigning sovereigns as may be
present ; his near relations are by etiquette still excluded
from the room, and view the ceremony from the small
window near the ceiling, immediately opposite the
" Krasnoe Ugol " or throne. Around the central
pillar which supports the vaulted roof, the " mountain "
is placed on which the Imperial plate is displayed on
state occasions, just as it was in the days of Herber-
stein, Jenkinson, and the early ambassadors to the
Muscovite Court. Here, too, Ivan " Groznoi " re-
ceived the Khan's emissaries and the rusty knife his
victorious enemy had sent him that he might cut his
own throat ; here for three days he regaled his com-
panions after the fall of Kazan : here Boris Godunov
entertained the Danish Prince, suitor for the hand of
the Tsarevna Xenia ; here, in 1653, Alexis received
the submission of Bogdan Khmelnitski and the cession
of Little Russia. Peter I. also celebrated herein his
victory over Charles XII. at Poltava, and in 1767,
Catherine II. confided to the delegates the celebrated
" Nakaz " for the compilation of the new code of law.
Its present condition closely resembles its primitive
aspect, traces of Peter the Great's vandalism having
been removed ; the walls uncovered ; the paintings
restored ; the windows refitted ; and older furnishings
substituted for the tapestry and decorations of Peter
and his successors. The paintings, as the inscription
states, were made in 1882 by two "brothers Bieloosov,
ikon painters, peasants of the villiage of Palekha."
Chancellor and his companions when ushered into the
Golden Palace encountered Ivan the Terrible. "The
Russian Tsar, sitting on a lofty couch, arrayed in robes
of silver, and now wearing a different diadem. In the

Moscow of the Tsars

middle of the room stood a huge abacus with a square
pedestal, surmounted with a succession of orbicular tiers,
which regularly tapered towards the culminating point,
and was adorned with such profusion of plate and costly
rarities that it was almost overburdened with the great
weight of them, and the greater part were of the
choicest gold. Four vases, conspicuous by their size,
served specially to enhance the splendour of the other
golden vessels, for they were nearly five feet in height.
Four tables, placed separately on each side of the hall
and raised to the height of three steps above the floor,
were bespread with the very finest napery and attended
by a numerous company." One thing which surprised
Chancellor was the great reverence shown the Tsar
when he spoke, by the whole company " rising simul-
taneously and bending low their bodies with a sort of
gesture of adoration, silently resume their seats."

The Terem is a building of five storeys, each higher
one smaller than any below and the topmost but a
single room, with a porch leading to the flat roof from
which, before blocked by the Great Palace, a splendid
view was obtainable. The ground floor was built early
in the sixteenth century, but serves now for store-rooms
only, and the one above, reached by a door under the
staircase, consists of a private suite formerly the work-
rooms of the palace and now utilised for the preserva-
tion of old charters. The staircase with carved stone
steps is separated from the palace by the " gilt-wicket "
which formerly divided the private from the state and
court rooms of the palace. It is of a quite ordinary
design when compared with the much more elaborate
wrought metal-work found elsewhere in the palaces
and churches of the Kremlin. The first room reached
was originally the " vestibule," but serves now as a
breakfast-room ; the cases contain the old seals of the
Kingdom ; the walls and vaulted roof covered with

'33

The Story of Moscow

pictures and the stove of fine old glazed Russian tiles,
a variety of faience the secret of whose manufacture
has been lost. Near to this room is the Council
Chamber, and, further, what originally served as the
private room of the Tsars, but was latterly used as a
throne room. In the bronze casket is the deed of
election which appointed Mikhail Theodorovich to the
throne. In the " Krasnce Ugol," or " Grand Corner,"
is the seat of the Tsar Alexis with a carpet before it,
the handiwork of his daughters. The window ad-
joining is that from which Dmitri, and other rulers,
lowered the basket for the petitions of all and sundry
who wished directly to communicate with the Tsar.
Adjoining this room is a bedroom, once occupied by
the unfortunate Tsarevich Alexis Petrovich. The
oratory has two ikons which formerly belonged to the
Tsar Alexis, as did also the cross. The belvedere
reached by either of two separate staircases, was built
by the Tsar Michael for the accommodation of his
children, and in later reigns may have been used as a
council chamber for the " duma " of the boyards.
The Tsars Alexis and Theodore II. were brought up
in the Terem ; Peter the Great occupied it only occa-
sionally, chiefly before his travels abroad, and his son
Alexis was its last regal inmate.

" The early Romanofs practically shared their rule with the
Patriarch, and church services and pageants entered largely
into their every day life. The Tsar would be awakened at
about 4 A.M. and at once enter his oratory for private devo-
tion ; a quarter of an hour later he prayed before the ikon of
the saint whose day it might be, and then sent one of his
attendants to inquire as to the health of the Tsaritsa and, later,
might himself attend her in the vestibule and accompany her
to matins in one of the chapels of the palace. Boyards and
others awaited his return for instructions in matters of state,
and at nine o'clock the Tsar attended high mass either in one
of the churches or cathedrals of the Kremlin, or upon fete days
wherever the ceremony was necessarily performed. Mass

'34

35

Moscow of the Tsars

lasted about two hours, and afterwards the sovereign gave
private audience to ministers until midday, when he took
his first repast, ordinarily frugal to scantiness and eaten alone.
During Lent the Tsar Alexis made but three meals each week,
and ate fish but twice, on fast days taking only a morsel of
black bread and a pickled mushroom ; he drank either kvas
or small beer: his devotions occupied five hours of each day,
and often he prostrated himself more than a thousand times
daily.

"Fast day or not the Tsar's table was always well supplied,
but of the seventy or more dishes usually served the greater
part were presented to his courtiers and officers. After the
midday repast, the sovereign invariably retired for a short
sleep, arising for vespers at about three o'clock, when he was
always attended by the court. Occasionally state business was
transacted after evening service, but generally the remainder
of the day was spent in recreations ; theatricals, music and chess
were chief among these. Court pilgrims were the Muscovite
equivalent of the wandering minstrels of the British courts.
The Tsar Alexis particularly was interested in the recitals of
' experienced ' men who had travelled in distant parts of his
kingdom and liked to hear often the recollections of the grey-
beards who had known the Moscow of the ' troublous times.'
If their stories failed, resource was had to a reading of the
chronicles, ecclesiastical and profane. The pensioners were
housed in the Kremlin near the royal palace, and were under
the immediate protection of the Tsar, who himself not fre-
quently followed some centenarian to the specially appointed
burial place in the Bogo-yavlenni Monastyr.

" The Tsaritsas for the most part occupied themselves with
their own devotions and the direction of the work rooms of
the palace ; very occasionally with their children they accom-
panied the Tsar to the Krasnoe Kriltso to be ' beholden of the
people.' Sometimes they witnessed state ceremonies from a
secluded corner of the throne room, and in the evening
witnessed the amusements in the Potieshni Dvorets ; were
diverted by the tricks of mountebanks and jugglers ; listened
to songs, or watched the special dancers engaged for their
amusement. Their journeys abroad were restricted to visit-
ing the convents and churches, pilgrimages to the Troitsa
Monastery, or the season's change to a suburban palace.
Although they attended High Mass in the cathedrals, they
were seldom seen by the public, being always surrounded by a
guard of chamber-women who carried ecrans and, arranging
themselves before the Tsaritsa, screened her from the eyes of

137

the curious. Doubtless the strict etiquette was departed from
in the semi-state of the summer palaces at Kolomenskoe
and Preobrajenskoe, and certainly the Tsaritsa Natalia failed
in various ways to observe the strict seclusion of the Terem.
A state procession in the days of Alexis was a wonderful
pageant : on his visit to the Novo Devichi Convent he was
preceded by 600 horsemen, three abreast, all dressed in cloth
of gold. Grooms led the twenty-five white stallions harnessed
to a coach draped with scarlet and gold : a guard of honour
surrounded it ; the Tsar followed in a smaller coach drawn by
six white horses ; boyards in state robes were his escort.
Petitioners thronged the procession and their written requests
were deposited in a special box carried behind the Tsar. The
Tsarevich, with a long cortege, followed. The Tsaritsa was
preceded by forty grooms with magnificent steeds, and her
own coach drawn by ten white horses, and behind her the
Tsarevna in z. similar carriage drawn by eight horses. The
waiting-women, to the number of twenty or more, rode astride
white horses ; they wore scarlet robes, white hats with yellow
ribbons and long feathers ; white veils hid part of their faces ;
top boots of bright yellow completed their costume. The
guard consisted of 300 of the Streltsi with their showiest
weapons, and behind them came pensioners, boyards and
officers of the court." Zabielin.

The young Prince Peter had a small state coach to
himself; it was drawn by small white ponies, and he
had as a special retinue a number of dwarfs. In the
golden age of the three Romanofs Moscow thrived as
never before and became beautiful beyond other cities.
Alexis busied himself in erecting new and better build-
ings where fire destroyed the old, and his example
was followed by the boyards, who commenced of their
own accord to build churches or to enrich those exist-
ing, and were even so western and modern as to
present bells. It was under Theodore that Moscow
attained its zenith and became known as the city of
churches " Forty-forties " their number, the Russian
equivalent of " seventy times seven," derived from
" sorokov," an ecclesiastical division, and also a
" great gross " ; the number actually in existence
138

Moscow of the Tsars

within the town limit is said to have been 1071.
There were twenty-seven " Halls " within the Kremlin
palaces ; some twelve new courts of justice in the
town ; and eight royal residences in the suburbs. The
boyard Dmitri Kaloshinim built a great church on the
Devichi Pol-ye, and in addition to the academy in the
Za-ikono-spasski Monastyr other schools were founded.
The handicrafts of the west were generally practised,
and many new trades learned and mastered, some 4300
foreigners being employed in Moscow in the manu-
facturing industries and the instruction of the citizens.
It was at this period that most of the beautiful glass,
faience and metal work that enriches the sacristies
was produced, and then that the finest ecclesiastical
buildings were erected. Some of the choicest anti-
quities of the Treasury (Orujen-ia Palata) date from
this period. The boyards during the siege of the
Poles and themselves in the Kremlin turned much of
the old plate stored there into money ; the specimens
of earlier date had been hidden away, or were in the
treasures of churches outside the Kremlin. Among
the most interesting antiquities here are:

In the entrance Hall. The old bell of the Guardians of
Novgorod, recast in 1683 ; the alarm bell of the city of
Moscow, recast in 1714 from the old bell of the town ; two
plates recording the execution of the Streltsi. The stair-
case has old German suits of mail, some trophies and two
pictures, one representing the battle of Dmitri Donskoi against
the Tartars at Kulikovo, and the other the baptism of
Vladimir the Great.

Room i : Armoury. Russian armour of the seventeenth
century, notably a mounted model of the Voievode of the
period ; on the left of the entrance a Russian soldier of the
same, also the helmet of the hero Mstislavski, and the helmet
of the Tsar Mikhail Theodorovich.

J?o0ra2: Weapont. Chiefly fire-arms used in Russia from
the fifteenth to the eighteenth century arranged chronologi-
cally, of which those in cases XVIII and XIX are the most in-

39

The Story of Moscow

teresting; in the cases XVI and XVIII will be found the
weapons of foreign manufacture, among them the sporting gun
presented to the Tsar Mikhail in 1619 by Fabian Smith;
against the wall are the guns the monks of St Sergius used to
defend the monastery at Troitsa against the Poles in 1609;
below these the saddle of Prince Pojarski. Among the
standards around the pillars are the sacred colours carried by
Dmitri at Kulikovo, of Ivan the Terrible against Kazan (No
59), of Alexis Mikhailovich against the Poles (No 24), of the
Streltsi, of Peter the Great's first regiment of marines (No i),
and the lion and unicorn with which Yermak conquered
Siberia. The helmets of Kosma Minin, Prince Pojarski, of
Nikita Romanof, Yaroslaf II., and Alexander Nevski.
Room 3 : Trophies. Modern.

Room 4: Regalia. The twelfth century crown of Vladimir
Monomachus ; the sixteenth century crown of the Tsars of
Kazan; that of Ivan Alexievich (1680) and of Mikhail Theodoro-
vich, the Imperial crown, that of Georgia, globes, sceptres note
particularly the beautiful workmanship from the conquered
kingdom of Georgia and the orb reputed to have been pre-
sented by Basil and Constantine in 988, together with the
golden chain collar and piece of the " true cross." Among
these insignia, most curious are the Barmi, metal collars worn
at the coronation, of which one of the earliest has the eagle,
lion, griffin, and unicorn Byzantine symbols and excellent
coloured enamel, but said to have been remade by a Moscow
goldsmith in the sixteenth century. The thrones include that of
ivory brought to Russia in 1472 by Sophia Paleologus ; Persian
throne sent to Boris Godunov, in 1605, it is studded with more
than 2000 gems ; the double throne of the Tsars Ivan and
Peter was made at Hamburg and is so constructed that the
curtain at the back might screen the Tsarevna Sophia who
used to station herself there either to watch or prompt her
young brothers. In a casket is the code of the Tsar Alexis
on sheets of parchment.

Room 5 : Plate. To the left on entering are the enamel
ware, metal, wood, ivory, and glass, household plate of Russian
manufacture in the seventeenth century of which the best are
those of coloured enamel and niello. The loving cup presented
by the patriarch Nikon to the Tsar Alexis; a ring of the un-
fortunate Eudoxia (wife of Peter I.) and a number of more or
less uninteresting objects of that monarch's period ; and a fine
numismatic collection that will attract the enthusiast.

Ground Floor: Carriages and Harneis. The State chariot sent
to Boris Godunov by Queen Elizabeth, carriages with mica
T 4

Moscow of the Tsars

windows, closed carriages of the Tsaritsas, the miniature con-
veyance of the young prince Peter, some relics of Napoleon ;
portraits of the sovereigns of Russia, and the model of the
palace with which Catherine II. intended to cover the Kremlin ;
of the old palace at Kolomenskoe. There also is the only
portrait of Maria Mniszek, and a picture representing her
marriage with the false Dmitri.

Golden Moscow extended far beyond the Kremlin ;
one of its most characteristic corners is the Vosskresenski
Vorot, where stands the little chapel sacred to the
Iberian Mother of'^GcyL the exact copy of a most
venerable ikon, brought in 1648 from Mount Athos,
for which this chapel was erected by the Tsar Alexis.
The picture shows a scratch on the right cheek, the
work of an infidel, who was converted by seeing the
blood that instantly exuded from the wound. The
adornments are a brilliant crown, with a veil of pearls,
a large gem on the brow, another on the shoulder ;
gold brocade with enamelled plaques representing angels'
heads, and the usual lavish decoration of the vestments,
complete this unusual ikon, which is probably the most
venerated of any in Moscow. The chapel is exceed-
ingly rich and always surrounded by worshippers ;
thirteen silver chandeliers with tapers are always burn-
ing before the ikonostas, and to this day the Tsar on
visiting Moscow dismounts at this chapel before enter-
ing the Kremlin. The architecture of the wall and
gate is a modification of the Russian style of the i6th
century as influenced by the purely utilitarian or military
style of Podolia and north-east Germany, but the spires
that crown the old square towers are of a later date and
are probably due to the love of the Tsar Alexis for the
Gothic which he tried in vain to blend with the heavy
low wooden models of early Russia. The buildings
of this period are mostly characterised by the quaint
mixture of Lombard and Gothic, but there is one
fragment, the ruins of the archiepiscopal palace at

141

The Story of Moscow

the Krutitski, which exhibits the more ornate style
then considerably followed for " Halls," in which the
influence of Byzantium predominates. The Krutitski
monastery was first established within the Kremlin, but
many centuries ago was transferred to the suburbs near
the Krasnce Kholmski Bridge, where the remains of
the seventeenth century " dwelling " of the metropolitan
may now be seen serving as the gateway to the entrance
of a barracks. It is fronted with glazed tiles of many
colours, yellow and green are the most conspicuous,
and of many shapes. The window casements are
purely Byzantine, but the vaulted archways and the
roof are as markedly Russian. Only its outer side has
been left in its original state, with the quaint designs,
particularly that of the " Busy Bee," glaring from the
gaudy tiles ; the other side, that within the courtyard,
is now covered with the usual distemper (i>. p. 122).

Doubtless much of the fine work on other buildings
that have survived the fires of the past two centuries
is similarly hidden beneath plaster and many coatings
of thick body colour, but it is unlikely that it will be
discovered until the old buildings themselves are in
course of demolition, so this one perfect example,
which is but little known and seldom visited, may be
regarded as the sole existing memorial of that school
of Greeks and Byzantines which so powerfully in-
fluenced Muscovite construction during the reigns of
Alexis and Theodore II.

The literary culture was derived from Poland, and
is not remarkable for strength or beauty : Slavinietski
confined himself to dogma ; the many-sided Polotsi,
artist, administrator, pedagogue and poet, wrote several
volumes, and helped in the adaptation of old-world
stories for dramatic representation. In addition to
several plays such as " The Prodigal Son," " Shadrach,
Meshach and Abednego " and " Esther," which
142

*WWWVV^S&S^

* ^Mi^'^M^^!' :

= , ' ' /.

'^i\*^^'ll i ' ir ^B6IIW5'liB?5^lTflR?/ "

VOSSKRESENSKI VOROT AND IBERIAN CHAPEL

43

Moscow of the Tsars

were performed within the walls of the Uspenski
Cathedral, profane history afforded such themes as
the " Siege of Troy " and " Alexander the Great "
for the amusement of the court in the private hall.
Native themes were not so general : " The Judgment
of Chemiaki " was one ; such plays as the ** Good
Genius," " The Mirror of Justice," appear to have
been derived from the Arabs, and it is said that many
themes from the Hindu " Panchatantra " were also
utilised. Prince Galitzin spoke Latin as fluently as
a German Professor ; the tsarevna Sophia was his
equal in that tongue ; and the princess, so far from
being satisfied with the routine of the terem, amused
herself in writing a tragedy and a comedy in verse, both
of which were performed in Moscow. There seems
to be no doubt that great liberty was accorded her ;
but she, unfortunate in the choice of her advisers,
became ambitious, and herself was the principal figure
in one of the greatest of the real dramas Moscow has
furnished. The " Tranquil " Tsar, as Alexis became
to be called, amassed great wealth and amused himself
in building a fleet for the Caspian Sea, which the
water-brigand, Stenki Razin, the pirate of the Volga,
promptly destroyed ; and then Alexis, like Peter,
played with toy boats on the ornamental lake he had
made in the Kremlin. To him, much more truly
than to Peter, do Karamzin's lines apply :

" Russia had a noble Tsar,
Sovereign honoured wide and far :
He a father's love enjoyed,
He a father's power employed,
And sought his children's bliss
And their happiness was his."

He constructed much of the old Moscow still
visible ; not a church or a monastery of earlier date
but he rebuilt, extended, or improved. Outside the

K 145

The Story of Moscow

Kremlin, throughout the different zones of the
town, beyond the last ramparts far away into the
forests that skirted the suburbs, the marks of his work,
churches, palaces and halls, testify to the immensity and
riches of this Moscow of the Tsars ; wherever one
may go in or about the Moscow of to-day, that of the
seventeenth century cannot be wholly escaped.

CHAPTER VIII
The Kremlin

u The Kremlin is our Sanctuary and our Fortress ; the
source of our strength and the treasury of our Holy Faith."

VIAZEMSKL

D USSIANS very rightly regard the Kremlin as their
Holy of Holies. All that Moscow is to Russia,
the Kremlin is to Moscow. Nowhere else are so many
and diverse relics grouped in so small a space ; no
place of its size is so rich in historical associations.
It contains what is best worth seeing in Russia, it is
what is best worth knowing. The people know this ;
know that as their poet Medich tersely expresses its
value " Here it is that the great Russian eagle raised
its eyrie and spread its immense protecting wings over
an enormous empire." To the antiquary, to the
student of history, to the lover of beauty, to the
tourist in search of distraction, the Kremlin is equally
attractive. To see it to best advantage, all who visit
Moscow for the first time should make the tour outside
the walls before entering by any one of its five
practicable gates ; or, if the complete circuit some
two miles cannot conveniently be made then, instead
of entering by the nearest gate from the Kitai Gorod,
let the hurried visitor at least drive across the Mosk-
voretski Bridge, along the quay on the south side of the
river, and, returning by the Kammeny Most, make an
entrance by either the Borovitski or the Troitski Gate.

The Story of Moscow

The exact position of the wall of white stone, built
in the reign of Dmitri Donskoi (1367), is unknown ;
in all probability it was within the space at present
enclosed. The wall of burnt tiles, erected during the
reign of Ivan III., was the work of Aleviso
Fioraventi, an Italian architect ; but a few
years later, between 1485 and 1492, the
present wall was raised on the
foundations of the old one, in
part by Italian workmen, in part
by native artisans. This wall,
repaired from time to time, has
escaped all the fires and disasters
which wrought such havoc else-
where in the Kremlin ; but in its
original state consisted of three
distinct parapets, set back and
rising above each other over the
ditch, much as the tiers of the
old towers still remaining. The
wall, the inmost of the three, is
of an exaggerated Italian style,
the battlements unnecessarily
deep. The towers and gates
are various : some as the Spasski
and Troitski, Gothic ; some as the Borovitski and the Gun
Towers, Russian ; others bastard and nondescript. The
Borovitski, Tainitski, and the similar smaller square
pyramidal towers, are clearly copies of the older wooden
erections on the earlier walls. The design is that of
carpenters, not of masons. The green tiles are the
original covering ; the secret of making them has been
lost. For centuries the wall was painted white, the
present brick colour is an innovation.
, An early writer states that " the wall is two miles
about, and it hath sixteen gates and as many bulwarks."
148

KREMLIN RAMPART AND GUN
TOWER

The Kremlin

It is better to be precise. The length of the wall is I
mile 700 yards, and it follows exactly the contour and
windings of the hill, forming an irregular triangle ; the
thickness varies from 14 to 20 feet, the height from
30 to 70 feet. Throughout the entire length there is
a rampart 9 feet wide and a low parapet on the inner
side. This walk is paved with stone flags, and is
reached from any of the towers and by special stairways
within the wall.

The Borovitski Gate, surmounted by a tower 200
feet high (see page 299), preserves the name of the
forest (Bor), with which the hill was long ago covered,
its official name is the Prechistenka Gate ; here all
that remains of the old church of the Nativity of St
John the Baptist is conserved in the chapel on the
right of the gate in entering. In the second storey is
the Royal Chapel of St John, one of the ten churches
of the palace ; in it a service is held once a year, to
which worshippers arc summoned by ringing the bells
on the third storey of the tower. By this gate the
Tsars left the Kremlin on other than state occasions,
by it Napoleon's troops entered.

Turning towards the river, the round tower at the
corner of the wall was used at one time as a water
reservoir for the palace gardens. Peter the Great had
need of all the lead he possessed when building his
new capital on the Neva, and the tower was then dis-
mantled. It suffered from the mines exploded by the
French in 1812 ; in 1856 it was used to store certain
valuables removed from St Petersburg.

The first tower eastward from the " Chateau d'Eau "
is the old granary, " Jitny Dvor," now used by the
priest of the adjoining church of the Annunciation.
According to the legend on the wall at this point a
vision of the Annunciation was seen ; to commemorate
which this church was built.

'49

The Story of Moscow

The next tower is over the Tainitski or " Secret "
Gate, a postern leading to the river, now practicable
for pedestrians only. On this spot there has been a
gate ever since the Kremlin was first enclosed ; it was
at one time used for the procession of January 6, on its
way to the river, but " The Blessing of the Water "
is now performed from the New Cathedral of our
Saviour.

The wall then runs eastward as far as the round
tower near the Moskvoretski Bridge, then turns north
as far as the Spasski Gate. The corner comprised
within this length of the wall and a straight line from
the Tainitski to the Spasski Gate is full of story.
The first two towers have now no name ; the next is
that of the Metropolitan Peter ; after the corner tower,
the first is that of Constantine and Helen, the next the
Tsarina's tower, then comes the small open tower in
the wall itself and quite close to the Spasski Tower.
It was at this corner, at first within the Kremlin it-
self, later outside on the Grand Place that the public
executions took place. The wall here has prison cells
within its vaulted arches, dungeons are beneath the
towers, the corner tower once an oubliette, is still
supposed to have the remains of the iron blades and
spikes, upon which the prisoners fell, projecting from
its walls ; in the tower of Constantine and Helen were
the instruments of torture used to extort confessions,
and the church of the same name is that to which the
accused were taken to make their oath before being led
to the rack or cast into some secret dungeon. The
Tsarina's Tower, now a dwelling and storehouse, has
no pleasant history ; the small tower in which once
hung the great bell brought from Novgorod is popularly
believed to have been constructed by Ivan Groznoi to
afford him a better view of the executions, but, if
authorities may be believed, on such occasions he more
150

The Kremlin

often figured as an actor than an onlooker. However
this may be, it is undoubtedly the truth that of this
portion of the Kremlin much that is interesting will
some day be written. Sneguirev and other writers are
content to describe it in very general terms ; Fabricius,
who for eight years was employed in the Kremlin
and knows it more thoroughly than most men, in his
monumental work on the Kremlin, scamps this section,
although giving minute details respecting other towers
and portions of the wall. It is not accessible to the
public, and special permission from the commandant of
the fortress is now required before admission is given to
the rampart walk.

The Spasski (Redeemer) Gate, constructed in the
reign of Ivan III. (1491), by Peter Antonio Solarius
of Milan, was at first known as the Florovski gate
from a church dedicated to St Florus in its vicinity.
It bears the following inscription :

" Johannes Vassilii Dei gratia magnus Dux Volodomirz,
Moscovise, Novoguardiz, Iferiz, Plescovias, Veticias, Ougariae,
Permise, Volgarix et aliarum totiusque Roxiz dominus: anno
30 imperil sui has turres condere jussit, et statuit Petrus
Solarius Mediolanensis, anno nativitatis Domini 1491."

When the church of the Holy Trinity was built
this gate took the name of the "Jerusalem Gate,"
because the Palm Sunday procession passed beneath
it. In 1626 during the reign of the Tsar Mikhail
Theodorovich, Christopher Galloway, an English
clockmaker, constructed the spire and placed therein
a striking clock, which, however, was subsequently
removed. After various changes, in 1737 the Tsarina
Elizabeth Petrovna caused the one now in use to be
placed there. The building itself is formed of thick
double walls, between which are passages and stair-
cases of wood and stone ; brick buttresses connect the
walls and support the upper storeys. The second is

The Story of Moscow

the clock tower ; the third of octagonal form, has
eight arches on which the spire is carried. Over the
entrance is the miraculous ikon of the Redeemer,
brought back from Smolensk by the Tsar Alexis in
1647. It is to this picture that the orthodox attribute
the raising of the siege of Moscow by the Tartars
under Makhmet-Ghiree in 1526; it is still held in
great veneration, and it is customary for all to uncover
whilst passing through the gate. Formerly an omission
to do so was punished with two score and half com-
pulsory prostrations. The Redeemer Gate is the state
entrance to the Kremlin ; by it the Tsars entered and
left on all important occasions. Ivan III. passed
through after quelling the revolt at Nijni Novgorod ;
Ivan " Groznoi " after taking Kazan ; Vasili Shooiski
after the delivery of Moscow from the Poles ; here
the people went to meet the young Tsar Michael
Romanof after his election. The remains of Shooiski
were brought through this gate, and by it passed the
funeral processions of the Tsars Peter II., Alexander
I. and Alexander II. Since the eighteenth century
the Tsars have made their state entry to the Kremlin
for the coronation by the Redeemer Gate. Criminals
executed near the Lobnce Mesto addressed their last
prayers to the ikon above its portal ; near it the
" hundreds " of Streltsi were executed by order of
Peter the Great, and in his reign the heterodox who
refused to shave their heads paid a fine on passing it.
The French tried to blow up the gate with gunpowder,
but it was saved by the timely intervention of the
Cossacks.

The Nikolski Gate on the north-east was also built
by Peter Solarius, but has been several times restored,
having suffered by fire and from other disasters.
Tokhtamysh entered the Kremlin by this gate ; so
did the troops of Sigismund III., and it was here that
152

'The Kremlin

Edigei most strongly assaulted the Kremlin, here that
the Krim-Tartars ineffectually tried to gain an entrance
in 1551, and here that the battle raged between the
Poles and Russians for the possession of Moscow.
Like the Spasski Gate it also has its miraculous ikon.
It is a mosaic of St Nicholas of Mojaisk. The
dread of perjurers and the comfort of those in pain,"
before it litigants made their solemn oaths preliminary
to the hearing of the cause. The inscription upon it
records how, when the French attempted to blow it
up, the ikon escaped destruction.

"In the year 1812, during the time of the invasion by the
enemy almost the whole of this strong tower was demolished
by the explosion of a mine ; but, by the wonderful power of God,
the holy image of the greatly favoured by God, here designed,
and, not only the image, but the pane of glass covering it, as
also the lantern with the cr.ndle, remained uninjured.

" Who is greater than God, our God ? Thou art the
God, the marvellous God, who doest miracles by Thy saints."

This gate is the most generally used entrance to the
Kremlin, and in the tower above the law archives of
the town are now stored.

Northward from the Nikolski gate there is an abrupt
descent to the corner tower which is polygonal, not
round like the others for here is the old bed of the
river Neglinnaia. Formerly the stream was dammed
up near its junction with the Moskva so as to constitute
an impassable moat, and thus protect the western side
of the Kremlin. Nevertheless the wall is continued
at the same height for its whole length. The arsenal,
a commonplace building, extends from the corner tower
to the Troitski gate, the monotony of its dreary line
broken by two characteristic gun-towers on the wall.
In the Alexander Gardens, outside the Kremlin,
arches and rough masonry may be seen, and possibly
mistaken for a part of the foundations of the Kremlin

'53

The Story of Moscow

wall ; they are only decorations dating from the
Exhibition held there in 1872.

The Troitski (Trinity) Gate was constructed to
give access to the palaces in the Kremlin from the
suburb on the other side of the Neglinnaia, in the
seventeenth century occupied almost entirely by Court
servants and artisans. Towards the close of the
eighteenth century this quarter was a slum, the chief
haunt of the robbers and desperadoes of
Moscow ; thence came the men who fired
the city during the French occupation.
The tower over the gate,
in the Gothic style, was
added by Galloway early
in the seventeenth cen-
tury and has been twice
restored ; the rooms in
it are now used by the
staff in charge of the old
archives stored in the various
towers of the Kremlin. The
bridge is protected by a barbi-
can, the Kuta'ifa, a large white
tower of original design, the
BELVEDERE or PLEASURE PALACE work of Italians, about i 500,
battlemented and once fur-
nished with gates and portcullis. The French entered
and left the Kremlin by this route. It is the only gate
in the Kremlin without a chapel, the church of the
Trinity once adjoining having been demolished.

About midway along the wall between the Troitski
and Borovitski gates appear the bright-coloured roofs
and gables of an old Russian house, the Potieshni
Dvorets, whose striking architecture, together with
that of the characteristic smaller towers on the walls,
relieves the ugliness of the service buildings on the

'54

The Kremlin

left and the heavy fagade of the Treasury building on
the right. This side of the Kremlin should be seen
from the far side of the gardens, or from the street
beyond.

The best view of the Kremlin is that seen from the
south end of the Moskvoretski bridge (see page 13.)
The balconies of the Hotel Kokoref command the
same view, one which reveals at a glance more that is
characteristic of Moscow than even the bird's-eye view
from the dome of Ivan Veliki. In the foreground the
river and quays ; beyond, the walls of the Kremlin
with towers in all styles ; the fantastic pinnacles of
Vasili Blajenni ; the blunted spires of the Vossnesenski
convent, behind which rise the gilded domes of the
Chudov church and the great cupola of the hall of
St Catherine in the Senate. Beyond the striking
Alexander memorial rises the belfry of Ivan Veliki,
and around it cluster the gilded and gay-coloured domes
of the cathedrals, then, further to the left, the long
fagade of the Palace, the pyramidal tower of the
Borovitski gate, and, apparently near by, the huge
golden dome of the new Cathedral. (See page 299.)

Entering the Kremlin by the Nikolski gate, to the
right is the arsenal, to the left the Senate (Law
Courts), reaching the transverse route from the Troitski
gate, the barracks are in front, the buildings of the
service corps to the right, the Chudov monastery to
the left ; continuing straight on, a large open space is
reached ; then on the left is the smaller palace, on the
far side of the square is the Alexander memorial ;
close by, on the right, the Synod, then, railed off, the
Sobornia Ploshchad with the cathedrals and beyond
them the Grand Palace. In the centre rises Ivan Veliki
tower which serves as belfry for all the cathedrals.

The cathedrals are, for the most part, described in
detail in " Moscow of the Ecclesiastics " ; the palaces

'55

Tbe Story of Moscow

in the chapter on " Moscow of the Tsars," and the
Chudov and Vossnesenski monasteries in chapter xii. ;
here the other buildings and sights of the Kremlin may
be mentioned.

First and foremost to treat of Ivan Veliki ; of
Moscow and its bells.

According to tradition the tall bell tower has a very
ancient origin but as a matter of fact it was constructed
at the close of the sixteenth century to find employment
for a starving population. Its foundations are on a level
with the river bed, 120 feet below the surface ; its height
above is 320 feet, built in five storeys, the first four
octagonal, the topmost cylindrical. In the eighteenth
century it was considered one of the wonders of the
world, and to this day the orthodox invariably cross
themselves when passing it. Dedicated to St John
and containing in the basement a chapel to the same
saint, it is supposed to owe its name to this, but tradition
states that it was constructed by one John (Ivan)
Viliers whose patronymic has been corrupted into
Veliki that is, "great" or "big."

There are 450 steps to the gallery under the cupola,
whereon is an inscription of which the following is a
translation :

" Under the protection of the Holy Trinity and by order of
the Tsar and Grand Duke Boris Theodorovich autocrat of all
the Russias, and of his son the Tsarevich and Grand Duke
Theodore Borisovich, this church has been completed and
gold-crowned the second year of their reign. A.M. 71 So." 1

Adjoining Ivan Veliki is another tower, that of the
Assumption, in which are hung the larger bells, and
still further to the north a third belfry with a pyramidal
spire, known as the Tower of Philaret.

The chapel of St John is on, or near, the spot
occupied by a small wood church first erected in 1320 ;

1 Date erroneous : built 1590-1600 A.D.
I 5 6

The Kremlin

it contains several ikons of interest. On the first storey
under the dome of the Assumption Tower is a chapel
dedicated to St Nicholas, replacing a fourteenth-century
church in the Kremlin. It is specially visited by the
orthodox about to marry, and contains some ikons
removed from the church of St Nicholas of Galstun,
demolished during the reign of Alexander I. (1816).
A deacon of the old church, Ivan Theodorof, intro-
duced printing into Russia, and in 1 567 produced a book
of hours on Moscow. Hence, the book depot lodged
in the tower. Very characteristic of Moscow are these
three towers, of different styles of architecture, massed
to form one building ; that the three should all be
white is a pleasing convention which has long endured.
It is needless to state that there is an excellent view
from the upper storeys, one well worth the toilsome
ascent. Moreover the bells are interesting ; though
some visitors are content with an examination of the
great Bell of Moscow which, broken and flawed, stands
upon a pedestal at the foot of the Ivan Veliki tower.

The art of bell-founding first practised at Nola
in Campania in the ninth century, has been known in
Russia since the fourteenth; in 1553 a bell of about
1 5 tons was cast in Moscow and hung in a wooden
tower. Since that date many large bells have been
cast and recast. The largest, the Tsar Kolokol, the
" Great Bell of Moscow," is supposed to have been
first cast in the sixteenth century, probably during the
reign of Boris Godunov ; in 161 1 a traveller states that
in Moscow is a bell whose clapper is rung by two
dozen men ; in 1636, a fire in the Kremlin caused the
bell to fall and it was broken. In 1654 it was recast
and then weighed some 130 tons ; it was 2 feet thick
and its circumference over 50 feet. It was suspended
at the foot of the tower, and the wooden beam support-
ing it being burned by the fire of i 706 it once more

'57

The Story of Moscow

fell to the ground and broke, it was recast by order
of the Empress Anne in 1733* but it is doubtful
whether it was hung. From 1737 to 1836 it lay
beneath the surface. By the order of the Tsar
Nicholas, De Ferrand raised it from the pit and
mounted it on the pedestal it now occupies. It is
2 feet thick, 21 feet high (26 feet, 4 inches with ball
and cross) 68 feet in girth, and weighs 185 tons. The
fragment is 7 feet high and weighs 1 1 tons. The
figures represent the Tsar Alexis and the Empress
Anne. It bears a long inscription :

" Alexis Michaelovich of happy memory, Autocrat of Great
and Small Russia and of White Russia, gave the order that
for the Cathedral of the pure and glorious Assumption of the
Holy Virgin, a bell should be cast with 8000 poods of copper,
in the year of the world 7161 and of the birth of Jesus Christ
our Saviour, 1645. This bell was used in the year 7176 (A.D.
1668), and served until the year of the creation 7208 and of
Jesus Christ 1701 ; in which last year on the 19 June it was
broken in a great fire that destroyed the Kremlin : it was
mute until the year of the creation . . . and of our Lord. . . .
By the command of the majestic Empress-Autocrat Anna
Ivanovna, for the glory of God, of the Holy Trinity, and in
honour of the Holy Virgin, in the Cathedral of her glorious
Assumption, they melted the metal of the old bell of 8000
poods, damaged by the fire and added thereto 2000 poods of
new metal, the year of the world 7141 and of the birth of our
Saviour 1734, and the fourth of the glorious reign of Her
Majesty."

" Thirty-four bells hang in these three towers ; the
largest is the " big bell " of the Uspenski Sobor, which
is in the middle tower and on the lowest tier. It was
cast in 1 8 1 7 by Bogdanof, to replace the bell broken
when the tower was wrecked by the mine exploded
beneath it in 1812. A bell of 7 tons is the largest in
the tower of Ivan, which, originally founded in 1501
by Afanasief, has been subsequently recast ; the next
storey has three old bells and amongst those of the
,58

The Kremlin

highest storey are two " silver " bells. The oldest here
dates from I 550 ; other old bells, Russian, Dutch, and
others, are hung in the belfry of Spass na Boru, in that
of St Michael in the courtyard of the Chudov Monas-
tery, and in the belfry of the Vossnesenski Convent.
Russian bells are not swung, but are sounded by moving
the clapper, to the tongue of which the bell rope is
attached; the clapper of the " Kolokol " is 14 feet
in length and 6 feet in circumference. The famous
bells of Moscow are :

"The Tsar Kolokol, 185 tons; Assumption or 'Big Bell'
in use 64 tons; The Thunderer (Reut), 30 tons, cast by
Chokov in 1689, it also fell in 1812 but was not broken;
The Every Day (Vsednievni), 15 tons, cast in 1781; The
Seven-hundredth (Semisotni), 10 tons ; Bear (Medvied),7 tons;
Swan (Lebeda), 7 tons ; Novgorodsk, 6 tons ; The ' Wide ' Bell
(Shirokoi), \\ tons ; Slobodski, 4^ tons ; Rostovski, 3 tons."

The casting of the great bells was made a state
function as well as a church ceremony ; as late as the
nineteenth century, the old form of blessing the bell
was followed in the case of the Big Bell, which is
described at length by Dr Lyall who was present:

"On the I7th March 1817, the Archbishop Augustine went
into the cavity in which the metal was to be run, and sprinkled
the place with holy water, as also the metals to be used in
founding the bell ; gave his benediction to the masters of the
foundry, and called the workmen to receive his blessing and
kiss the cross. The molten metal ran by a gutter into the
mould ; and, the casting finished, the Archbishop again gave
thanks to God. The leading inhabitants were present at the
casting, and freely threw in gold and silver trinkets. On the
23rd February 1819 this bell was removed from the foundry.
It was placed on an oak sledge, and after the Te Deum had been
sung, a willing crowd seized the many ropes attached and
drew the sledge down the Srietenka and Lubianka to the
Kusnetski Most, Mokhovaya, and the whole length of the
Kremlin wall to the Borovitski Gate by which it made its
entrance, and reached the Belfry of Ivan Veliki, where the
Te Deum was sung again. It was hung in the summer of 1819."

'59

The Story of Moscow

Closely allied to the art of the bell-maker was that
of cannon-founder, and the Kremlin contains some
curious and excellent specimens of old weapons. The
most striking is the huge gun known as the Tsar
Pushka, " King of Guns," familiarly as the " drobov-
nik " (fowling piece), which was cast in the reign of
Theodore Ivanovich (1586), by one Chokof. It
weighs 36 tons, and is of too large calibre and too
weak metal ever to have been used as a weapon.
When Peter I. after the battle of Narva, ordered old
cannon and church bells to be cast into new ordnance,
this was spared. So was the mortar by its side, for
it was cast by the false Dmitri, who not only took a
great interest in the manufacture of fire arms, but tested
them himself. Among the cannon arranged along the
barrack terrace is " The Unicorn " cast in 1670 ; the
carriage of this, of the Tsar Pushka, and of others are
new, made by Baird, of St Petersburg. Along the
front of the arsenal are arranged the 875 cannon, 365
French, taken from " the twenty nations " who invaded
Russia with Napoleon.

It has already been stated that the Kremlin was at
one time a complete city ; to a certain extent it is so
still. Again and again buildings have been destroyed
and restored ; streets made, and swept away. In sink-
ing the foundations for the Alexander memorial the
debris of three distinct ruins superimposed showed how
one town has succeeded another, and as at that point,
so at many others. The exercising ground was long
covered with dwellings ; there were the hostelries of
the Krutitski monastery, the houses of the priests,
seminaries, private dwellings at one time as many as
twenty streets were to be found within the Kremlin
walls. Under the barracks and the Chudov monastery
are immense vaults of ancient brick ; below the Synod
are known to be two large chambers which have not
160

CHURCH OF OOR SAVIOUR BEHIND THE GOLDEN GATES

161

The Kremlin

been examined, and, in the very centre of the Kremlin,
between the Tsar Pushka and the Chudov Monastery,
but three feet beneath the pavement, is the basement
of an old edifice, vaults of white stone, probably the
remains of the palace of the Tsar Boris Godunov.
The smaller palace is built upon the side of an early
cemetery ; at one time in the open space near Ivan
Veliki criminals were publicly executed and the ukases
of the Tsar proclaimed. In the same way that the
Kremlin is honeycombed with vaults for the storage
of great quantities of food and munitions of war, it is
penetrated by different conduits for the water drawn
from the bed of the neighbouring stream ; a supply so
plentiful and constant that the Tsar Alexis used it to
flow through great lead bottomed tanks and ornamental
lakes, whereon, like later Tsars, he amused himself
with a toy fleet.

The railed in Sobornia Ploshchad has been from
time immemorial the Grand enclosure. Here the
religious processions formed, and form ; here Dmitri
Ivanovich unfurled the black standard before going
out to give battle to Mamai ; here most Tsars have
passed to their coronation, or have walked with
their brides to the altar for the wedding sacrament ;
across it the princes and Tsars of Moscow have been
carried to their last resting place. Outside that door
crouched the excommunicated Ivan Groznoi, from this
the frenzied people dragged their priest, towards that
the threatened metropolitan bravely made his way to
officiate at a forbidden mass. Before the Grand
entrance (Krasnoe Kriltso) foreign ambassadors drew
up in pomp to make their calls of state, on that same
terrace Ivan with his staff transfixed the foot of the
brave messenger of the not less bold Kourbski, there,
too, he gazed at the comet supposed to foretell his
death. To this place the basket for the petitions of

163

The Story of Moscow

the people was daily lowered from the Tsar's palace
window ; on this spot fell the body of the murdered
false Dmitri. Here at different times have gathered
Tartar envoys, merchant venturers, turbulent Streltsi ;
the famished, the terrified and the pestilent stricken ;
Polish soldiers, French grenadiers, foreign fighting-
men as a bodyguard, the dreaded " opritchniki " ;
bountiful boyards, Napoleon's riff-raff; humble Russians
to petition, pious ones to pray, grateful ones to return
thanks.

The imaginative visitor may conjure up amidst the
buildings whatever scene he will from the history of
Moscow and find adequate setting. May picture
state pageantry ; church ceremonial ; military display ;
the expression of perfervid piety ; the ruin following
fearful disaster whether wrought by the hand of man
or the act of God. Such scenes that the walls will
seem to echo in turn the laughter of homely merry-
making, the huzzahs of victory, the wails of the afflicted,
the uproar of the turbulent, the sighs of the worshipper
for here every emotion has been many times ex-
pressed by the varying multitudes that have thronged
these courts.

Entering by the tower of Philaret, the Church of the
Twelve Apostles is on the extreme right, the Cathedral
of the Assumption immediately in front, that of the
Archangels on the left, opposite it is the Cathedral of
the Annunciation communicating with the royal palaces
by a terrace from which descends the wide flight ot
steps which as their name, Krasnoe Kriltso, indicates
is the grand or state entrance to the palace. It was on
this terrace that the Tsars of old allowed the people to
see " the light of their eyes," and there that those ot
noble race stood to be "beholden of the people." At
one time this flight had the usual porch at the 'foot,
and a red roof above, just as the approaches to the old
164

The Kremlin

churches and the modern house, Dom Chukina off the
Tverskaia. Fires have destroyed the roofs and now
an awning only is used upon state occasions. These
steps flank the old Granovitaia Palace and on its
other side, in an obscure corner, almost behind the
Cathedral of the Assumption, is the Holy Spot of
the Kremlin, being to the church what the Krasnce
Kriltso was to the state.

It is the old entrance to the private apartments of the
Patriarchs, and the chapel of the metropolitans, that
known as the Pecherski Bogeimateri, raised on the
site of the earliest stone edifice built in the Kremlin.
Founded by Jonas it suffered the fate of most buildings
in Moscow, but was always rebuilt in much the same
style, and still conserves many characteristics of the
most ancient of Moscow churches. The present build-
ing is composed of the fragments left from the fires of
1626, 1637, 1644 and 1682. The roof is vaulted,
supported by four columns ; the walls have pictures of
the virgin and saints, and above the altar is that of
the Madonna. The ikonostas has four stages and is
adorned with most venerable ikons, notably those of
" The Reception of the sacred vestments of the
Virgin" of the Virgin of Vladimir (an early copy),
and of the Holy Trinity, before which are ancient
candelabra with the remains of tapers made like the
old rushlights and gaily coloured. The inscription is
to the effect that they were placed there by the
Patriarch Joseph in 1643 and 1645. The old
chandelier in the centre is by Sviechkov, a master
craftsman of the Tsarian workshops in 1624. The
Virgin of Pechersk, brought from Kiev, is hung upon
the wall and surrounded with portraits of Peter, Alexis,
Jonas, Philip, and other of the patron saints of Moscow :
before this ikon all must bow or suffer eternal punish-
ment. The church is never closed ; day and night it

165

T'be Story of Moscow

is visited by pious pilgrims and the sacred lamp is ever
burning before the ikon. It communicates with the
corridor of the Terem, and behind it rise the domes of
the churches within the palace, notably those of the
Saviour behind the Golden Gates and St Catherine's :
near them the roof of the Terem and the walls of the
Granovitaia Palace complete a picture wholly Muscovite ;
but, if tradition may be trusted, the work upon the
most picturesque portion, St Catherine's, is due to an
Englishman, one John Taylor, in the service of the
Tsars.

On Palm Sundays there used to form in the little
square before the porch the head of that procession in
which the Tsar led the Patriarch, seated upon an ass,
by^the Redeemer Gate to the Lobnoe Mesto. Peter
the Great turned the procession to mere burlesque,
mounting the Patriarch upon an ox and himself playing
the buffoon. Here, too, were the miracle plays and
church mysteries performed in the seventeenth century,
and here the church processions still form for the more
stately pageants of to-day.

The only old private dwelling remaining within the
Kremlin is that now known as the Potieshni Dvorets,
or " palace of amusements," which was originally the
house of the boyards Miloslavski and was acquired by
the crown after the marriage of the Tsar Alexis with
Maria Miloslavski. The interior has now nothing of
particular interest, but the exterior is an excellent
example of Russian architecture as modified by mid-
European influence in the late seventeenth century.
Part of the third and fourth storeys instead of retreat-
ing, in the Russian style, is made to project, but the
" belvedere," with a balcony all round, is retained for
the top storey ; retained, too, are the bulbous pillars
which serve as, or decorate the side posts of doors and
windows, and the long pendant keystones to form the
1 66

The Kremlin

double-arch instead of a lintel ; all of which are
peculiar to Russian architecture.

POTIESHNI DVORETS (PLEASURE PALACE)

Several explanations for the common use of the
ogival arch, the bulbous dome, and the double arch

l6 7

Story of Moscow

with hanging keystones, have been advanced by
antiquaries, but none are altogether satisfactory. The
errors have possibly resulted from studying masonry to
the exclusion of carpentry, and the early Slavs were
users of wood not of stone or brick. It may be that
these forms were due to the execution in light elastic
wood of arches and vaults copied from foreign work
composed of voussoirs, but such is unlikely. Assuming
that round wood poles, the stems of the plentiful young
birch trees, and wattles were the materials of which the
frames of the early dwellings were constructed, then
such forms naturally result.

If the ends of poles are stuck into the earth, and the
opposite extremities brought to a common centre and
weight as that of the roof added, the timbers will
sagg and a concave section result. That this was one
Russian form of roof, the illustration of the Belvedere
of the Terem exemplifies (see page 117), where the
curve is purposely exaggerated for the purpose of
decorative effect. If, instead of being placed loosely
in the earth to allow of this set, the poles are thrust
down deep into the soil or otherwise made immovable
and the upper extremities forcibly brought in towards the
centre and fastened there, then when the weight of the
roof bends the poles, they will bulge outward in the
middle, and when the weight of the roof has been so
adjusted as to correct the curve in order to give to the
structure the desired greatest possible interior space
for domestic accommodation, then the bulbous dome
naturally results if the poles be arranged in a circle.
The ogival arch is only a section of that.

Granted that if the poles cross each other near the
tops a more or less concave cone will result as ex-
emplified in the tepoes of the American Indians
yet if instead of two or three poles, many more
have to be brought to the common apex it will be
1 68

The Kremlin

easier not to cross them but bind all firmly to each
other or a central post then the ogival section must
result. If a single pole is bent to form the support of
a roof and both its extremities are thrust into the ground,
the horseshoe arch is obtained as soon as the weight
of the roof acts upon such supports. If, instead of
the single pole, two shorter ones are taken and instead
of being lashed together to form the pointed arch
the upper extremities are brought towards each other
and downwards and then lashed, a more rigid bow
is obtained, and this is the crude form of the double
arch with pendant keystone so common in Moscow ;
and its use generally is over doorways, etc., where a
wide span with great stability is required, and with
poles as the only available material this form gives
rigidity not obtainable by bending to any other so simple
form.

The form of arched vault that had served as the lowly
dwelling of a primitive people was retained in its
entirety for the roof of later and larger buildings ; the
walls, whether of logs or shaped timber, served as
imposts, just as the soil had done, and so the bulbous
domes, the square and oblong attic roofs with their
characteristic gonflements have been retained. It is
merely an example of the persistence as decoration of
forms which were originally wholly utilitarian. This
is particularly the case with the double arch where the
pendant keystone descends to the level of the imposts
and is of course supported from the lintel when exe-
cuted in masonry. Another characteristic Russian form
is the circular arch of masonry, which has the voussoirs
of the intrados of the usual regular form but of the
extrados slightly elevated at the corner to indicate
the " ogival arch," which was the common form of
the wooden arch in Moscow. As already stated
(ch. ii.) the early forms of Russian dwellings may

169

The Story of Moscow

be studied from the models in the Historical Museum ;
one peculiarity is that each successive storey is set back
from that immediately below instead of projecting as
in the half-timbered houses, of mediaeval England.
In addition to the belvederes of the Terem and
Potieshni Dvorets, it is noticeable in the towers of
the Kremlin wall. They were originally of timber
and the earlier form is retained even to the double
walls and tiers so necessary to a wooden bulwark,
but quite foreign to the method of the Italian masons
who erected these buildings. The steep roofs of
the towers is also common and convenient in con-
structing with timber, but needless and difficult when
working with tiles and bricks. So long as these
remain the wooden original Moscow cannot be wholly
forgotten.

The attempt to retain the pyramidal or retreating
form when building with bricks has resulted in a
distinctly Muscovite style for towers and spires. In-
stead of a parapet on the walls of the tower, a tier
of small circular arches is imposed, and form the
crowns of these, also set back, spring the voussoirs
of a second tier, and in like manner other tiers until
the desired height is reached for the spire, or the
cylindrical shaft that is to support the dome, or
whatever other ornament is used to crown the struc-
ture. One of the best examples of this form is
the church of the Nativity on the Mala Dmitrovka,
which was built in the " golden " period of Moscow
1625-1680 when for all buildings of first importance
masonry had supplanted the use of wood (see p. 181 ).
The earlier form may be seen in the roof of the
Blagovieshchenski Sobor ; and the varieties of pattern
are reproduced in the attic roofs of the Historical
Museum building.

The absurdity of the pendant keystone in the double
170

T'he Kremlin

arch is demonstrated by the arch over the doorway to
the courtyard of the synod, and the lintels of doors
and windows of the Potieshni Dvorets.

The magnificent monument to the Great Tsar
Liberator, Alexander II., is the latest addition to the
Kremlin, that heart of Moscow which echoes the
glorious past of the Russian empire and is its true
Pantheon. None have graced it more than those
early Romanofs whose work is evident in every
ancient building, but still more imperishable was the
noble labour of him to whom this generation has ex-
pressed its gratitude in 'an imposing and characteristic
memorial to the most loved Tsar.

171

CHAPTER IX
Moscow of the Ecclesiastics

"Come, brothers! your heads you may bow,
Before grand and most holy Moscow ;
Where the old altars of our land,
Where shrines of saints, and ikons stand,
Our inmost sanctuary." BOROZDNA.

LJOLY Moscow, so reverently and affectionately
regarded by the orthodox as the Mother of the
Church, is to them more than a mere agglomeration
of sacred shrines and ecclesiastical edifices. Neither
the churches though they are numerous and important
enough to warrant the familiar appellation nor yet the
wonder-working, incorruptible remains and the miracu-
lous ikons most endear Moscow to the true-believer
for there are such elsewhere which receive like humble
homage. Holy Moscow comprises all that has served
to nurse and sustain the faith amidst infidel aggression ;
the white-walled and golden-crowned city is symbolic
of the lasting reward of heroic endeavour in the upward
struggle of the race towards supremacy. Not inde-
structible itself, but its spirit undying ; razed time after
time only to appear again greater and more glorious
than before, Moscow seems to the Russian not so much
a part of the national entity personified in empire, as
the very soul of his race ; possessed, even as each in-
dividual, with strength to endure adversity and unfailing
vigour to accomplish a predestined purpose. Traditions
172

Moscow of the Ecclesiastics

of divine intervention ; the finding and promulgation of
Law ; much that is miraculous and legendary as well
as all that is credible in early national history the
Russian associates with Moscow, and feels what the
stranger cannot be made to perceive, may even fail
to comprehend, for the outward and visible sign of the
living spirit that actuates the Church is but faint and
imperfect, even as performance is so often but an in-
adequate rendering of intention. Although the sanctity
of Moscow may not be apparent to the unorthodox,
the observer will expect some characteristics of motive
to stand revealed in externals. But to the uninitiated
the ritual of the Russian Church is bewildering, and
the true significance of such symbols as are exhibited
in ecclesiastical architecture and ornament is likely to
be missed by over accentuating the importance of what-
ever may be unusual. For many, who are quite ignorant
of its tenets and practice, the Eastern Church has an
irresistible fascination ; the danger is that these, on a
first acquaintance will over-praise such details as they
may appreciate and too hastily condemn others they
may not rightly comprehend, and fail to arrive at a
just conclusion by means of further study when no
longer attracted by the novelty of the subject. To
confine oneself to the consideration of externals is in-
sufficient, being tantamount to the act of one who,
absolutely ignorant of card games, endeavours to obtain
an idea of the amusement derived from their play by
careful examination of the accurate printing and careful
finish of certain cards in the pack. On the other hand
an attempt to convey by words alone an accurate idea
of the full teaching of the Eastern Church is fore-
doomed to failure, and the most that can be done is to
indicate the broad lines of the policy that has actuated
it, and risk such errors as must accrue from possible
mistranslations of meaning.

'73

The Story of Moscow

All Christian races treasure some legend as to the
conversion of their forefathers by one of the Apostles.
The Russians are no exception, and, in any event, the
introduction of Christianity into their country took
place in the heroic age.

" Novgorod, a city of great antiquity, having been founded
by Rha, a grandson of Noah and son of Japhet, was visited by
the Apostle St Andrew who wished to preach the gospel.
The people would not listen to him, and having disrobed the
saint threw him bound into a scalding bath. The saint
distressed, and almost suffocated by the vapour, called out
' ISputra ' (I sweat), whence the name Russia. Other histories
state that the conversion of the race took place some thousand
years later, when, strange as it may appear, the Polyans were
first called Russ, as some think from ' ros,' the old German
name for ' horse.' There is a tradition that Vladimir the
Great, having conquered fresh territory, became tired of his
pagan gods and expressed a desire to embrace a newer faith.
With the Christianity of Rome he would have nothing to do,
for, he said, his relations in the west had embraced that, and
yet were always at war and without good fortune. The Kara'im
Jews of South Russia wished to convert him, but when he
learned that they were exiled from the land of their fathers
and had no country of their own, he refused, saying they were
receiving the harvest of their sins and that he had no wish to
cause his people to share their punishment. Then hearing
that at Constantinople another religion was professed he sent
delegates thither to observe and judge whether or not it would
suit him. These Russians were astonished at the many lights
in the temple; were moved by the singing and the stately
procession of deacons, sub-deacons and others to and from the
sacristy, and, particularly, at the humble manner in which the
people prostrated themselves when the priests appeared. The
ritual they did not understand and asked their guides what it
all meant. ' All that we have seen,' they said, ' is awful and
majestic, but what seems to us supernatural is the young men
who have white wings and dazzling robes, and cry " Holy !
Holy ! Holy 1 " in mid-air this truly surprises us.' ' What ? '
answered the guides, ' do you not know that angels come down
from heaven to our services ? ' ' You are right,' said the
Russians ; ' it is enough more we do not wish to see ; let us
return to our country and tell of that which we have already
seen."

74

Moscow of the Ecclesiastics

If the early chronicles may be trusted, the Bible was
first translated into Slavic by Cyril and Methodius, two
Greek monks of Byzantium, about the year 863, and
so prior to the advent of the Norseman Rurik. In all
probability, the faith was spread by proselytising clergy,
in part helped by the devotion of the noble women of
Byzantium who wedded with the savage Ros, and from
the first was wholly independent of the civil power.

Of persecution there was little ; Kiev furnished one
Voeroeger martyr, and, as elsewhere among heathen,
the Christian religion appears to have been readily
embraced. Before the Kremlin was raised, before
Moscow was, the church was represented on the banks
of the Moskva by the little wooden chapel "spass na
Boru." Ivan Kalita was one of the first to recognise
the usefulness of the church as an adjunct to civil and
military power ; he made priests not only welcome in
Moscow but all important there. How the reigning
princes caused the church in Moscow to rival in authority
that of Kiev and, later, to attain supremacy throughout
Russia, has already been stated. Of equal importance
to the work initiated by any Tsar were the services of
St Sergius, founder of the great monastery at Troitsa,
which at one time possessed immense tracts of land and
owned more than 100,000 serfs. Sergius was born at
Great Rostov, and in his youth passed some time near
Moscow, and later, having a dozen disciples and the aid
of the Patriarch of Constantinople, helped greatly the
colonisation of Russia by sending out monks trained at
Troitsa. He lived the life of a hermit, and even when
abbot did his full share of the menial labour. A commonly
seen picture represents him as on old man seated on a
rough bench sharing his piece of bread with a bear.
Then came St Peter, an apostle sent from Mace-
donia, who, as a sign " passed through the fire " un-
injured ; after converting many he settled at Kiev and

'75

The Story of Moscow

was of great assistance to George Danielovich in raising
the clerical status of Moscow, and to his " incorruptible
remains " many miracles are attributed. A large number
of relics assigned to him are still preserved in the
Uspenski Sobor and the sacristy of the Patriarchs.
Next in importance to Moscow was Alexis, the Metro-
politan, afterwards canonised. From the earliest
times, the clergy, living the life of the people and not
that of the military caste, had great influence with
citizens and peasants : many times the church has
raised the spirit of the nation when oppressed by foreign
invaders. It spurred on Ivan III. to overthrow the
Mongol rule, and stirred up the people to repulse the
Poles and secure national independence. One source
of its power has been the use of the vernacular in all
services ; the church most certainly during the centuries
of Tartar dominion also preserved the Slavic tongue
from foreign dialects. The clergy have always held
it their chief duty to pass on to their successors their
faith as they received it. Schism is not tolerated ; the
slightest modification of ritual is forbidden. The
Metropolitans of Moscow were long able to preserve
the independence of the church against the encroach-
ments of the reigning princes ; Ivan the Terrible's
chief plaint against the clergy was that they exercised
their privilege of forbidding the execution of those
whom he had condemned to death. Boris Godunov
gave Moscow a Patriarch, and added to the power
of the church by appointing seven of the clergy to
seats in the States Council. When, in 1615, the Tsar
Michael met his father, the Patriarch Philaret, on the
banks of the Pressenaia (near the Drogomilov Bridge)
both bowed low and remained long recumbent, unwill-
ing that either should consider the head of the church
superior or inferior to the head of the state. From
that time until Philaret's death in 1639 father and son
176

Moscow of the Ecclesiastics

practically ruled conjointly. Nikon was scarce content
to be the equal of his sovereign, and ranked the church
above the state : he fell. Peter the Great scornfully
suppressed the Patriarchate, but did not arrogate to
himself the powers of the head of the church, substi-
tuting a synod to be elected from the hierarchy he
himself appointed. So it remains to the present day, the
reigning monarch having no right, from his position, to
interfere in spiritual affairs, yet still controlling the ad-
ministration of church law.

In matters of belief the Eastern church nearly approaches the
Anglican, the main divergence is that whereas the Anglican
and Roman churches agree that the Holy Ghost proceeds from
the Father and the Son, the Eastern Church holds that it pro-
ceeds from the Father only. The bible may be read ; the church
may interpret its teaching, "for the traditions of the church
have been maintained uncorrupted through the influence of
the Holy Spirit." God the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost, " perfectly equal in nature and dignity," may alone be
worshipped ; but homage may be paid to the Virgin Mary,
and reverence shown to the saints, to ikons and to relics.
That this may not be abused, bishops at their consecration
are requested to promise that " honour shall be shown to God
only, not to the sacred ikons, and that no false miracle shall
be ascribed to them. . . . The moshi or incorruptible remains
which are so greatly venerated, are the corpses of those long
dead, whose burial-place has been forgotten and is made known
by a supernatural manifestation. These remains must not
be subject to the ordinary process of decay, and may possess
such virtue as to miraculously cure the sick which is the
quality usually attributed to them."

The ecclesiastical architecture of Moscow, or of
Russia, is not so complex as it appears to be at first
sight ; originally the place for Christian worship was
but a square log-hut ; add an apse at the east end,
cover the building with a dome roof supporting a cross
to indicate its sacred character, and the external structure
of the primitive church is complete. Instead of a dome
roof it was found easier, as larger buildings became

M 177

The Story of Moscow

necessary, to cover with the dome only the centre of
the church, which was still further elevated to make
more prominent the dome and cross denoting the
purpose of the building. Three apses, symbolic of the
Trinity, took the place of one ; five and seven are
sometimes found. When the idea of the original
whole dome roof was expressed by four small domes
arranged around the higher central one, the model
became the permanent type from which all other forms
have been elaborated. The primitive type is best
exemplified in the church of St Michael within the
Chudov monastery, but the cathedrals of the Assump-
tion and of the Archangels, on the Sobornia Ploshchad
of the Kremlin, will serve equally well to illustrate the
permanent form. The origin and development of the
bulbous dome, as well as the size, position and number
of secondary domes, may be traced by comparing the
various old churches in South Russia, and those of
wood, formerly or at present existing in " wooden "
Russia. For this purpose a convenient series of framed
drawings is to be found on stands in Room /3 of the
Historical Museum. They confirm what has already
been stated in the preceding chapter, concerning the
origin of Russian architecture, and show that the
number of domes some churches have seventeen, if
not more is immaterial, since all should be so arranged
as to increase the importance of the central one.
Those in which all are equal in size and height as
the roof over the chapels of the Terem are quite
exceptional. The chief modification arose from the
necessity of preserving the structure and its valued
contents from the great cold of the winter and the ex-
cessive moisture of the summer. To overcome the first
difficulty the church was surrounded with a gallery ; to
obviate the second the floor of the church raised to a
higher storey 5 when the two were combined as in
178

Moscow of the Ecclesiastics

many churches of the sixteenth and seventeenth
century, some elaboration of proaulion and Kriltso was
natural. The best specimens of this class are the
churches of St Nicholas of the Great Cross on the
Ilyinka, and of the Assumption on the Pokrovka ;
the ordinary design is that of the porches and approach
to Vasili Blajenni, and of the Blagovieshchenski Sobor
before the ground was raised to its present level.

The belfry, a somewhat late comer to the Russian
church, was usually a separate building adjacent to,
but not a component part of, the church itself. When
masonry superseded wood, the old designs were for the
most part retained : so possibly the only other im-
portant point of general application is the subsequent
employment of the tapering spire and its modifica-
tions of superposed arches, etc. to support the dome
and cross, instead of the cylindrical shaft peculiar to
Russian architecture, which last was evidently derived
from round towers of very remote origin. The windows
are small and unimportant often mere oblong slits in
the wall and, though the accepted form admits of
little modification towards the elaboration of elegance
and grace in the design, and the decoration is limited
by the ecclesiastical objection to carved figures and
climatic conditions which preclude the employment of
projecting mouldings and all fine work in high relief
the brilliant colouring and mural decorations of plane
surfaces convey an impression of richness, which, com-
bined with the absence of the usual and conspicuousness
of strange decorations, magnify the whole, in many
instances, into the resemblance of whatever the imagina-
tion may picture as most ornate and brilliant.

In essentials the interior arrangements of all the
churches are similar : east of the pillars that support
the central dome, the church is divided by the
ikonostas a development of the rood-screen which

'79

separates the officiating priests from the worshippers.
In old churches seats were placed round the walls and
stalls provided for persons of high rank, but for long it
has been customary for the congregation to stand during
the services. Behind the ikonostas is the sanctuary ;
there females may not enter, nor any male if physically
imperfect ; it is disclosed to the worshippers during the
celebration of Mass by opening the ** Royal Doors "
in the centre of the ikonostas. There are in all
churches sacred ikons, having the place of honour on
the ikonostas ; decorative and illustrative pictures are
placed there also, and the same as frescoes, or other-
wise around the central columns and along the walls
of the church. Usually the north wall is appointed
for those pertaining to the saint to whom the church is
dedicated ; the south wall to the seven councils, the
west to other sacred subjects. Although the ikonostas
is the equivalent of the rood-screen in the old English
churches, it is not only always a fixture, but sometimes
a solid partition of masonry, being really that barrier
which shuts off the Holy of Holies, that may be
entered by the consecrated priests alone, from the rest
of the temple. It is always decorated, but the high
ikonostas, having five, or even seven, tiers of pictures
is a development later than the fifteenth century.
The " Royal Doors " must have representations of
the Annunciation and the four Evangelists, since
through this entrance came the glad tidings of the
Eucharist ; right and left of the doors the Saviour and
the Madonna ; also, usually, Adam, as the first fallen,
and the Penitent Thief as the first redeemed ; above,
the Trinity ; Abraham entertaining the three angels
and John the Baptist most frequently figure on the
screen, and, on the pillars facing the entrance, the
Publican and Pharisee as symbolic of an all inclusive
congregation of worshippers.
1 80

Moscow of the Ecclesiastics

In the Sanctuary is a tabernacle or Sinai, upon the
altar, and over it a baldachino on which the cross is
laid horizontally or nearly so. In the apse behind

CHURCH OF THE NATIVITY AND FLIGHT

the altar is the thronos or seat of the head of the church,
with other seats for priests on both sides ; the choir is
a raised dias before the ikonostas.

The Russian cross has eight points. To the Latin
cross are added the titulus, and a lower diagonal cross-
piece which is assumed to be a rest for the feet. Post
hoc, propter hoc, and that this rest slants is said to be
due to the fact that Christ was lame ; others think that

181

The Story of Moscow

its purpose is merely to give the idea of perspective of
the hill Golgotha on which the cross was placed, and
others as indicating the earthquake, whilst those versed
in mystic symbolism will recognise a totally distinct
signification. 1 To these last too, the accepted explana-
tions of the crescent from which the cross rises will be
insufficient. It was common in Russia prior to the
Mongol occupation, so is not the result of placing crosses
upon mosques, or intended to denote the subjugation of
Mahommedanism to Christianity. More probable is
the explanation, that in ancient pictures the Virgin is
shown standing upon the crescent, and the cross was later
placed by the Russian ecclesiastics to denote tha* the
cross issues from the Mother of God. Maxim, the
Greek, in the sixteenth century, declared that the
crescent represented Upsilon, the initial of D^OS, and
so is emblematical of the uplifting of the cross ; but if
its application as a sign of Christian dogma is open to
various constructions, all will at once recognise the sign
as one of the most ancient and general of mystic symbols.
The ecclesiastical art of Russia is of a different
nature to that of any school of the west. The ikons,
or sacred pictures, must be exact copies of the originals,
thus the practice supports Gibbon's contention that
the religious value of a sacred image depends for its
efficacy upon its resemblance to the orignal. 2 In
Moscow there are several pictures of the Saviour " not
made with hands," being in that respect, and that only,
similar to the Veronica and the miraculous image ot
Edessa. They are not alike, and their origin is not

1 The Russian cross is derived from the old eastern form of
the Greek letter */'.

2 " By a slow though inevitable progression the honours of
the original were transferred to the image ; the merit and
effect of a copy depends upon its resemblance with the
original." Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter xlix.

182

Moscow of the Ecclesiastics

known, but it is conjectured that the initials O 5 H, on
the nimbus, have been wrongly interpreted as the initials
of ot, otsa, Nebesnavo, which means " From Our Father
on High" instead of On, Otets, Nash "He is Our
Father." The Greek characters were little known in
Russia, and one of the pictures has this legend in
Greek O.n.N. In the same connection it is worth
noting that our I.H.S. is a misreading into Latin of
IH2, the Greek contraction of IHSoDs, where the long
e was mistaken for a capital H, and the dash above it
developed into a cross. The ordinary ikons are re-
stricted to fixed types ; the artist therefore has never
needed to create, only to reproduce. There are no
Russian Madonnas, all are replicas of pictures brought
from Greece or Byzantium ; " the ikon painter knows
but one costume, for all places and all times it changeth
not ; tradition fixes the form of the head, the pose,
the proportion, the attitudes and the attributes." Most
are produced by monks and probationers who follow
the instructions given in a tenth century MS. by
Dionysius of Mount Athos. Rigorously it is only the
features of the saint that must be exactly reproduced ;
in practice it is customary to cover all but the face and
hands with thin metal gold, silver, or gilt, and to
ornament the setting lavishly. In the seventeenth
century, the golden age of Muscovite ecclesiasticism,
there were several branches of ikon painting, not differ-
ing sufficiently to warrant the appellation of " schools."
These were known as the Imperial or Court style ; the
Village, the Strogonov, and the Monastic. Novgorod
would have the faces yellow ; the Strogonov insisted
upon dark green an introduction from Byzantium, and
sometimes known as Khorsunski. Black virgins are
not unknown the result of time upon impure pigments ;
those with three small scratches on the face are copies
of the Iberian Mother of God, a twelfth century ikon

183

The Story of Moscow

of the Virgin. Graven images are not allowed in the
Russian Church, being held to be a violation of the
second commandment. The only exception is that of
St Nicholas. Holy Statues were abolished by order
of the Patriarch Philaret, and when these were removed
from the churches all went well until hands were laid
upon one of the representatives of the patron Saint ;
no force could stir that ; where, by extraordinary means,
the statue was broken from the pedestal, the image of
the saint reappeared. This is the only figure seen in
high relief, and is usually made with the model of
a church in his hand. The popularity of the saint
may be estimated from the fact, that at one time there
were as many as 1 1 8 churches in Moscow dedicated
to St Nicholas.

The rites of the Russian Church are complex, and
to the unorthodox, perplexing. The celebrant by the
minute observance of minor details gives to every act a
symbolic meaning, and to even the least significant of
them some dogma of the church is attached. The
service is in Slavonic, of which the ordinary people
do not understand the letter, but can follow the general
meaning ; it is impressive apart from its significance,
and is intended so to be. It commences with a call
to worship the vozglass singing of psalms ; a series
of prayers ektenia for the welfare of the church,
intoned ; the evangels or epistles also intoned ; " choral
and part-singing of unequalled harmony and richness ;
prayers ; consecration of the elements ; administration
of the sacrament, which the priest takes every service,
and the congregation at will, but at least once yearly ;
thanksgiving, and the parting benediction ; chanting
and incense-burning are frequent throughout, and
asperging is practised at the commencement and termina-
tion. For the greater part of the time the " Royal
doors " are closed : the deacons remain before the
184

Moscow of the Ecclesiastics

ikonostas, but now and again some enter the Sanctuary
for a short time. From time to time priests and
acolytes pass to and fro among the congregation,
incensing all the sacred ikons in turn. The voice of
the officiating priest is raised within, and is answered
in deep tones by the deacons without. Now from some
unnoticed corner comes a clear ringing chant from many
voices, from another a deep single voice is heard inton-
ing the epistle, or evangel, of the day; then suddenly the
Royal doors fly open and a glimpse is obtained of the
celebrant through thick rolling clouds of incense ; the
people prostrate themselves and the doors close." Later
the priest emerges and the service has concluded to
the unorthodox stranger of any creed it has been
almost meaningless.

The history of Moscow is so intermingled with that
of the Russian Church, and the cathedrals of the
Kremlin and private chapels of the palace the scene of
so many notable events, that the reader will not need
a recountal of the stories concerning the historical
characters who have made them famous. Here it will
suffice if the minor details to be examined are enumer-
ated, and the tale of the struggle between orthodoxy
and dissent succinctly related.

UsPENSKI SOBOR

The Cathedral of the Assumption, formerly known
as that of the Patriarchs, originated with the Metro-
politan Peter, who said to Ivan " Kalita," " If thou
wishest that my old age be graced with peace, content,
and fulness, thou wilt raise on this site a grand temple
to our Holy Mother of God, then shalt thou likewise
be happy, become the most illustrious of the princes of
our age, and thy race powerful throughout the earth."
So in 1326 Ivan erected a fine wooden church, which,
in 1472, when the wood buildings were being replaced

,85

The Story of Moscow

by those of stone, was taken down and an attempt made
by Russian artisans to build its equal in brick. Before

USPENSKI SOBOR, THE IKONOSTAS

this work was complete the walls fell, and Aristotle of
Bologna, who had been entrusted with the removal of
the Campanile there, and the repair of the leaning tower
of Cento, was ordered to construct the cathedral anew.
Aristotle taught the Muscovites how to make larger
1 86

Moscow of the Ecclesiastics

and harder bricks than the pantiles to which they were
accustomed ; how to turn an arch and make vaulted
roofs. He took as his model for this cathedral the
church of the Virgin in Vladimir and used the white
stone of Kolomna hewn into rectangular blocks which
he fastened together with iron cramps.

Structure The foundations are 15 feet below the surface,
but the floor of the cathedral was originally seven or more feet
lower than at present; height to cupola 128 feet. The walls
were strengthened in 1626 after the injury done by the Poles ;
in 1684 the domes were covered with gilded copper, and the
mural decorations restored after the fire of All Saint's day,
1737, and the French occupation, but otherwise the edifice, is
practically as completed in 1497.

The South Porch is closed by the Golden Gates of Korsoun,
which were carried from that town to Suzdal, and thence to
Moscow they are actually of coppered iron gilt, divided into
twenty compartments exhibiting scenes from biblical history,
and below Apollo, Plato, and mythological figures. Before
them the Grand Princes of Muscovy were invested with the
authority of the Khan by his bashkak during the centuries
of the Mongol supremacy. The Royal entrance is by the
western doors ; the public entrance by those on the north
side.

The interior is remarkable for its ikonostas and ikons. The
screen is of masonry and descends 10 feet below the surface ;
it is adorned with frescoes, which may be inspected only when
the sacred ikons are removed for that special purpose. The
upper range has been recently restored to its condition prior
to the French invasion, when the old one was stripped of all
its precious metal ; the great silver chandelier of 2940 Ibs.,
made in England in 1630, was put in the casting- pot and
scales suspended from its place ; horses were stabled in the
chapel, and tethered to the coffins of the metropolitans. Not
content with robbing the sanctuary of its precious metals the
French deliberately placed the mannikins from the old suits
of armour in the Orujenni Palata as idols in conspicuous
positions about the church. The chandeliers are of silver
some 900 Ibs. of which in the one from the central cupola is
that recovered by the Cossacks from the retreating French :
some five tons of precious metal are in the present ikonostas.

The ikont include the most prized Mary of Vladimir attributed
to St Luke, which was brought from Tsar Grad Con-

I8 7

The Story of Moscow

stantinople to Kief, taken by Andrew Bogoloobski to
Vladimir and brought to Moscow on the Tartar invasion.
It is regarded as miraculous, having saved the city from
Tamerlane, and on subsequent occasions. Tsars and people
alike in past generations have regarded this picture as their
Palladium. Of its artistic merits it would be idle to write ;
black with age and discoloured by the accidents incidental
to preservation in an oft burned city, it is as represented in
the frontispiece. Completely enveloped, but hands and face, in
precious metal and handsome garniture, it exhibits a richness
of decoration few articles of vertu can equal ; the gems alone
being valued at upwards of ^100,000, and the great emerald
itself at ; 1 0,000. The next ikon of importance is that of the
Holy Virgin of Jerusalem, which, according to tradition, was
the work of the apostles. Taken to Constantinople in the
fifth century and to Kherson in the tenth, it came thence to
Moscow but, others say, it is but a copy, the original having
disappeared during the French occupation. On the right of
the royal doors is the image of our Saviour in the golden
chasuble, painted by the Greek emperor Manuel, and brought
from Novgorod the Great in 1478. By its side is an ikon
with most brilliant colouring representing the Assumption,
which is said to be the work of the metropolitan Peter, the
founder of the church ; but if it be not his handicraft is still
a remarkable specimen of the ikon painter's art in Russia of
the fourteenth century. These, with others, are all on the
lower tier. On the tiers above are usually placed : highest,
the Madonna and the Infant Jesus, the fathers of the
church in pre-mosaic days, portraits of persons mentioned in
Genesis ; on the second stage, the prophets from Moses to
Jesus Christ ; on the third, incidents in the life of the Saviour
illustrative of church feasts ; on the fourth, portraits of the
saints of the orthodox church ; on the fifth, the sacred
ikons.

Other futures in the cathedral include portraits of the
patriarchs and saints ; many frescoes on a gold ground are
ranged around the four pillars that support the central cupola ;
and, on the walls, the martyrdoms of orthodox saints are
depicted. A bas-relief, supposed to represent St George
slaying the dragon, has been identified by Sneguirev as once
part of a triumphal arch the Christians erected in Rome to
Constantine the Great.

The Sanctuary has a tabernacle of precious metal (17 Ibs.
gold and 17 Ibs. silver) on the grand altar, which contains the
Host and formerly also held a number of important state
188

Moscow of the Ecclesiastics

papers which were transferred to St Petersburg in 1880.
Also a large Bible of Natalia Naryshkin set with gems worth
several thousand pounds.

The Chapel of Sts. Peter and Paul is before the most northern
apse, with the tomb of St Peter immediately on the right when
entering ; just beyond it is that of the metropolitan St
Theognitus ; on the left are sacred relics: (a) the "Holy
Coat " or a portion of the " tunic " worn by the Saviour ; (6)
a nail of the true cross ; (c~) the right hand of St Andrew the
Apostle ; (</) the head of St Gregory the theologian ; and
(e~) the head of St John Chrysostom. The shrines were profaned
by Tokhtamysh, and ransacked by the French. Here in
olden times the rulers of the principalities in vassalage
to Moscow embraced the cross and swore fealty, and here
the metropolitans were appointed to their office.

The ChafelofSt Z)i//rof Thessalonica, called "The Peaceable,"
is on the south side of the sanctuary. It contains the oldest
tomb in Moscow, that of Yuri, brother of Ivan " Kalita,"
and it was in this Chapel that Yuri Glinski, brother of Ivan
the Terrible's mother, was slain.

The Chapel of the Virgin Mary is reached by a flight of steps
near the south apse, for it is situated under the southern
cupola. There the patriarchs were elected. In its sanctuary
are: (a) Copy of the gospels, printed in Moscow and pre-
sented to the boy -Tsars, Ivan and Peter, with beautiful initials
and rich binding, the work of foreign artisans in the palace;
() an illuminated psalter of the fifteenth century ; (c) an
illuminated MS. of the gospels by Russian scribes, 1664;
(</) a cross of cypress wood, enclosing a piece of the true cross ;
(e) cross of the Emperor Constantine ; (/) Jasper vases which
were ornamented with the Latin cross they were brought from
Novgorod, having belonged to the old monastery there, by
Ivan. IV. ; (g~) a sacramental chalice, which was presented to
Monomachus by Alexis Cominus, and is used to the present
day for the Holy Oil with which the Tsars are anointed at
their coronation.

The Tombs of the Patriarchs are ranged along the western
wall ; that of Jonas is on the north-west, and near the ikonostas
is the shrine of St Philip, murdered in Tver by Maluta Skutarov
to please Ivan IV.

The Thrones or stalls of the Tsar and Tsaritsa are situated,
the first between the south column and the south wall, the
second just before the north column ; the large stall in front of
the south column is for the Patriarch, and dates from the days
of Philaret only. The canopy in the south-western corner is

189

The Story of Moscow

for the " Holy Coat " sent by the Shah Abbas, but this is
usually kept in the altar of the north chapel.

It is pretty generally known that the Uspenski Sobor is the
State Cathedral ; that in it the Tsars of Russia must be
crowned ; there, too, several have been married, foreign princes
have renounced their faith and accepted the orthodox religion
prior to marriage with the Royal princesses, and there Peter
the Great caused his son Alexis to repudiate his right to
succeed to the throne : actually it is the mausoleum of the
Patriarchs and heads of the Orthodox Church.

There is nothing in its architecture that demands
comment, the external mural pictures are common
place, and from the artistic standpoint the work that
merits closest attention and highest praise is the open
scroll, bent and hammered metal on the lattices of the
different shrines, and almost equally good is much of
the chiselled, moulded and other decorative metal work
on the ikonostas. It is a typical church, richer in
precious metal, sacred ikons and holy relics than other
churches in Moscow ; it is the pious wish of the
guardians of the other churches to make theirs even as
is this.

ARCHANGELSKI SOBOR

The Cathedral of the Archangel Michael is of even
plainer appearance than the Uspenski ; its south wall
has been propped by a common buttress which, pierced
for the lancet windows, gives that side much the
appearance of a fortress. Its history is similar to that
of the other cathedrals ; the first wooden church on the
site was erected in the twelfth century. Ivan " Kalita "
built it anew as the place of sepulture for himself and
his descendants. Ivan III. demolished that church
and employed the Italian Aleviso to construct the
present edifice, consecrated in 1 500. It has suffered
severely at different times, especially during the French
occupation, when an attempt was made to destroy it by
exploding a large quantity of spirit the French brought
190

Moscow of the Ecclesiastics

within for the purpose, but this served only to scatter
the tombs, wreck the interior and spring the south
wall. The church contains the remains of the princes
and all the Tsars of Moscow. The petitions of the
people laid upon the tombs of the Tsars were taken and
read by Peter I. himself. Most of the religious cere-
monies peculiar to this church relate to masses for the
dead, and homage paid to the memory of ancestors. It
has the usual rectangular form, the four central columns,
the five cupolas, which the people think always dedicated
to the Saviour and the four evangelists. The chapel
on the west side is a later addition the sole remaining
one of four, which existed in the seventeenth century.
On the south side is a small chamber which was the
iz-ba, or Palace of Justice, and below it are vaulted
arches which extend almost the whole length of the
Kremlin ; the original paving is now some 1 2 feet
below the level of the squares adjoining. Here the.
Tsar's gift of money was scattered at his coronation.
The most noteworthy objects in the church are : the
ikonostas, high, brilliant and sparkling with gems ; the
excellent metal-work of the shrines ; the mural paint-
ings portraits of the Tsars whose tombs are below,
and the richly worked palls over the tombs.

The Ikonostat is of five stages ; the sacred ikons are : (a) The
Virgin " Beneficent," brought to Moscow by the Tsaritsa
Sophia Vitovtovna; (K) the Virgin of Tikhvin, the ikon of
the Tsaritsa Maria Nagoi, mother of the murdered Tsarevich,
Dmitri ; (c) St Basil the Great, near the south wall ; (</) St
Simeon Stylite.

The tombs of forty-seven princes of the line of Rurik lie upon
the floor : though not arranged in chronological order, no
difficulty will be found in recognising any one of them. Only
one Emperor, Peter II., grandson of Peter the Great, is buried
here ; those of the Tsars Michael and Alexis Romanof are on
the right hand near the first pillar, surrounded by those of their
sons and grandsons. Near is the tomb of the murdered Dmitri,
whose portrait in gold is hung on the pillar over the coffin.

The Story of Moscow

The silver candelabra before it was presented by the inhabitants
of Uglitch where he was murdered when but six years old. Vasili,
the blind, is buried near the ikonostas ; and by his side lies Ivan
III., the maker of middle Moscow and uniter of the Russian-
lands. Near the first pillar on the left is the tomb of Alexander,
Tsar of Kazan : near the second pillar, the Tsarevich Peter, son
of Ibrahim, and grandson of Mamotiakov, once Tsar of Kazan.
The remains of Ivan the Terrible are near the high altar, a
testimony of the forgiving temperament of prelates of the
orthodox church. The tomb is covered with a black pall,
indicating that he had been received into the church as a
monk before his death. Horsey states that persons passing
his tomb uttered a prayer that he might never rise again : to
this day, twice yearly, a special mass is celebrated invoking
forgiveness for that " burden of sins voluntary or involuntary
known to themselves or to themselves unknown " committed
on earth by those whose bodies are buried within the church.
In a side chapel, dedicated to the martyred Tsar, are the re-
mains of Michael Skopin Shooiski, the popular military hero
of the " Times of Trouble," and a bronze shrine covers the
remains of Chernigof and his boyard Theodore, martyred by
the Tartars.

The decorations are mural pictures, dry frescoes of portraits of
the Tsars, the best that of Vasili II. habited as a monk : also
illustrations of the Last Judgment, the " Symbol of Faith," and
miracles of the Archangel Michael, which represent Russian
pictorial art of the seventeenth century.

The lacritty contains some very beautiful sacerdotal robes
presented to officiating priests on state occasions ; the gems on
the richer sakkos being exceptionally beautiful. There is also
an ornate copy of the gospels brought from Novgorod in 1 125 ;
it has picturesque portraits of the evangelists, and characteristic
illuminated initials ; the golden filigree work on the cover is
excellent. A psalter of 1594 has elegant marginal decorations.
There were also rich crosses of gold and silver the one that
belonged to Ivan IV. with large pearls, best worth examination
reliquaries, and a curious gold chalice some 7 Ibs. weight.
Many will be more interested in the fine needle and jewelry
work on the elaborated palls of which the church has a great
many exquisite specimens.

The relics are not numerous : those which formally belonged
to the Tsar Alexis are within a reliquary of the cross above
mentioned : and a drop of the blood of John the Baptist is
shown under a crystal in one of the ikons.

I 9 2

Moscow of the Ecclesiastics

BLAGOVIESHCHENSKI SOBOR

The Cathedral of the Annunciation is of a more
elaborate and picturesque style than either the Uspenski
or the Archangelski, which, in part, may be attributed

BLAGOVIESHCHENSKI SOBOR

to the fact that it is more intimately connected with the
Royal Palaces than they are. Reached directly by the
palace terrace, it is the complement of the Krasnoe
Kriltso, and was used for the baptism of the royal
children, the confessions of the Tsars, and religious
ceremonies of a semi- state character. Its earlier de-

N 193

The Story of Moscow

signations were, among others, the "Church of the
Grand-Ducal Court," " Church of the Tsarian Vesti-
bule," and " Church of the Tsarian Treasury," which
clearly indicate the court uses for which it has been
employed. It has nine cupolas ; the roof of pointed
vaults rising tier above tier is most characteristic of
Muscovite architecture, and the entrance is by a flight
of steps communicating with a covered gallery which
surrounds the church, see page 1 78. Its early history
is that of the others ; first, a wooden church erected
by Andrew in 1291, rebuilt in 1397; in 1409 the
walls decorated with pictures by Rublev ; in part
demolished by Ivan III., who built again from the
first floor up, and, completed in 1482, painted during
the reign of Vasili Ivanovich ; damaged by the fire
of 1547 Ivan IV. restored it, and furnished cupolas
covered with the gold he seized at Novgorod. The
Poles in 1610 and the French in 1812 both spoiled it,
but the last only partially, the fact that most of its
treasures had been taken away to Vologda probably
misleading them so that they did not make a thorough
search for the valuables left within. During its recent
restoration the architect found that earlier decorations
existed beneath the outer coverings of plaster and paint ;
they were carefully uncovered and remain exposed.

The entrance is by the northern porch within the
railed-ofF Sobornia Ploshchad ; among the first mural
paintings on the right are portraits of the ancient
philosophers, Aristotle, Plato, Ptolemy, Socrates,
Thucydides, Zeno, and others, with lengthy quotations
from their writings on tablets they support ; beyond,
representations of the Saviour and the apostles, these
pictures dating from 1771, the year of the great
plague. The side posts of the doorways, richly
carved, are of early sixteenth century native work and
some of the best specimens now extant. The interior
194

Moscow of the Ecclesiastics

of the church is small, and looks even smaller than it
really is owing to an elevated tribune, or gallery, against
the west wall, which served for members of the Tsar's
family to participate in the services without being exposed
to public view, the Tsar himself being on the ground
floor, opposite the ikonostas. The parquet is of Jasper
mosaic, a present from the Shah to Alexis. Concern-
ing it, an enthusiastic, travelled native author remarks :
" It is a facsimile of a mosaic in St Mark's, Venice ;
the only difference being that whereas the floor of St
Mark's is uneven, to represent the ripples of the sea
and symbolise that Venice rules on the foaming waves,
this is quite regular and uniform, emblematic of the
vast steppes of which Moscow is the sovereign." *

Even more interesting are the old mural paintings,
pre-Raphaelite in point of time and in the argot of the
studio " more than pre-Raphaelite " in style. The
subjects are biblical : the adventures of Jonah ; the
mysterious visions recorded in the Apocalypse ; the
punishment of the damned ; the glories of Paradise,
with much else that is curious. They are already the
joy of a " school " and the admiration of Russian
antiquaries. Though crude, unreal, and not a little
absurd now, in the long ago, among the uncultured
people to whom they were first presented, they cannot
have failed to impress beholders powerfully, notwith-
standing that their influence upon the art of the time
was infinitesimal.

The columns are square, from them hang the chains and
jewelled crosses worn by former princes. The ikonostas is of
five stages, separated by rails of brass and bronze columns

* This church has the further distinction of being the first
supplied with a public clock, which was placed there by
Lazarus Serbin, in the seventeenth century. About the south
porch the last public discussions were held with dissenters led
by the able Pafnuty.

'95

The Story of Moscow

the precious metals with which it was formerly covered were
looted by the French. The more remarkable ikons are (a)
one of the Saviour's agony a typical specimen of Byzantine
work in the fourteenth century ; (K) the richly decorated Holy
Mother of God, known as the Donski Virgin, because carried
by Dmitri at Kulikovo; the ikon only was saved, in 1812,
the frame was mistaken by the French for copper and has
been repaired ; the ornaments are modern, except the eighteen
portraits of saints on the margin, which are foreign.

Near the altar are the two crosses of Korsun. There are
four chapels on the higher storey ; they are quite independent
of the church with separate entrances from the gallery. That
dedicated to St George is quite modern, but that of the
Virgin has one of the most primitive rood-screens to be found
in Moscow ; on it the ikons are set round with great flat
bands of silver; like that of the Saviour, and that of the
archangel Gabriel, it quite escaped pillage in 1812. The
sacristy in a small building on the south side is peculiarly
rich in relics, a complete collection of sacred remains brought
from Constantinople in 1328. It includes bones of different
saints contained in thirty-two silver and gilt caskets ; a
reliquary with the sponge used at the Crucifixion of Christ ;
a portion of the rod with which He was beaten ; some drops
of His blood ; spikes from the crown of thorns ; an eight
pointed cross, of the wood of the " true cross," and a fragment
of the stone that was rolled away from before the Saviour's
tomb. To them must be added a great number of Russian
Tsarian and ecclesiastical antiquities collected in Russia.

SPASS NA BORU

The church of the Transfiguration, known colloqui-
ally as Spass na Boru, St Saviour's in the Forest, is
supposed to be on the site of the first building ever
raised on the Kremlin hill that of the skeet of the
hermit who inhabited it prior to the tenth century.
The first stone church there dates from i 330 ; restored
in 1380, and rebuilt in 1527, and again restored in
1529, 1554, 1737, and 1856. Still much of its
architectural primitiveness has been preserved, but it is
typical of a church with monastery attached, as once
the case (see page 29). There are now no external
196

Moscow of the Ecclesiastics

mural paintings, but those inside are curious ; the small,
low belfry is very quaint and the bells now hung there
are old foreign bells among the first brought to
Moscow. The central chapel, that of the Transfigura-
tion, is the oldest, the " Royal Doors " are of primitive
type. Its sacristy is poor : the relics are those of St
Stephen the apostle to the Permians, and some frag-
ments of bones and vestments found during the altera-
tions in the present century. It is best seen in the early
morning, a service is held daily, and the church is
much visited by those about to marry, for, according to
tradition, Sts Yuri, Samon and Aviva, to whom its side
chapels are dedicated, are patrons of those whose love
affairs do not run smooth. On the higher storey is
the chapel of St Stephen the Permian.

PATRIARSHIA RIZNITSA

The Church of the Twelve Apostles and Sacristy
of the Patriarchs is on the site of a fifteenth century
church on the north side of the Uspenski Sobor. It
was built by Nikon and is still used in connection with
the synod. It is on the second storey, and above it
is the Chapel of St Philip the private chapel of the
Patriarchs after Nikon. In the rooms adjoining are
kept the Holy vessels, most valuable church plate, and
relics of the patriarchs and the Church. Many are
contained in the cases arranged round the walls, the
others may be inspected on application to one of the
attendants who will expect adm rubl na c^a/z/ or to
those much interested will be shown by the Sacristan,
who will explain their use and relate their history. A
complete catalogue may be had, but the best account is
that of the learned antiquarian, Sabas, Bishop of Mojaisk,
whose book is known to all interested in the lore of the
Eastern Church ; a French translation of it has been

197

The Story of Moscow

published in which the author's name is spelled " Savva."
Among the more interesting articles of art workmanship
are the panagies or jewelled crosses worn by the
Patriarchs and others after consecration to their high
office.

" Among the objects of greatest antiquity are the sacerdotal
robes of the high clergy. They are in the case near the altar ;
the ' Omophorium of the sixth (Ecumenical Council ' of the
catalogue, is said to have belonged to St Nicholas the wonder-
worker, Archbishop of Mirliki, and worn by that saint at
the Council at Nice ; Sabas thinks that it was presented to
Alexis by Gregory of Nicea who visited Moscow in 1655, with
letters from the Patriarchs of Jerusalem and Constantinople
testifying to its genuineness. It belonged to the Patriarch of
Alexandria, who was present at the Assembly of the Three
Hundred and Eighteen Fathers of the Church, and, latterly,
opinion inclines to its having originated with him. Equally
ancient is a mitre, easily recognised from other ' crowns '
in the case by its pointed shape, similar to those of ancient
Byzantium. It was presented to the Tsar Theodore ; the
donor, M'iletius Piga, of Alexandria, wrote that, apart from
the gems with which it is adorned and the rich material, its
age and reputation, it is to be esteemed above its intrinsic value
because taken to the Council at Ephesus by Cyril, in 431.
The mitre of the Patriarch Job, 1595, differs from those of later
date by reason of its very flat top the shape of a tloboot, hat,
or ancient crown rather than a mitre. The mitres ranged
with it were constructed by the directions of Nikon, and equal
in richness and other details the royal crowns.

" Of croziers and their equivalents there are many specimens,
the most venerated, however, is that of St Peter, by the altar
on the Uspenski Sobor, the staff" that passed from pontiff" to
pontiff through the centuries. There are three of the five in
the sacristy of tau shape and beautiful, they belonged to
Philaret ; the others to Nikon. The processional cross of
Nikon has but four points. Of copes there are forty-one ; the
oldest is that of Peter, the Metropolitan (i 311), used afterwards
at the consecration of the Patriarchs. The panagia or pyx worn
by a bishop, or higher prelate, is often an exquisite piece of
jewelry. That catalogued as No. 4 is of onyx, with a super-
posed layer having the crucifixion in relievo; on the reverse, a
Greek cross, the Emperor Constantine and Helena, his mother.
It belonged to the Patriarch Job and has a most beautiful setting

198

Moscow of the Ecclesiastics

of Russian enamel and niello work of the sixteenth century.
No. 1 1 is also of onyx, with ruby and pearl decoration, it
appertained to Peter. No. 3. is a sardonyx of elaborate work-
manship and unusual size ; it has a reliquary containing a
fragment of the robe of royal purple with which the Saviour
was mockingly invested, and is believed to have been produced
to the order of Ivan IV. to commemorate the birth of Dmitri.
No. 25 contains an emerald of purest water, three- fifths of an
inch in diameter. In another is also a fine emerald which
weighs 38 carats. There are in addition jewels, rings, seals,
cups, goblets, crosses, and other trinkets of the fathers of the
Russian Church, and amongst them an object known as the
' Antik,' which has puzzled the learned. It is a shell of mother-
of-pearl, shaped like a woman's breast, and on this in fine gold,
beautifully enamelled, the Gorgon's head, the fanged heads of
the serpent-locks intertwined and biting each other. It is on
a base of rock-crystal, gold encrusted, and the medallions
enamelled with representations of different buildings it has
figured in the inventory since 1648, when it had a double case
of dark green velvet. The fine collection of church plate is
principally of the seventeenth century and later.

" In the adjoining Mirovarennaya Palata, the Holy Chrism is
prepared every other year, in strict conformance with the
original instruction. It is, when prepared, taken in sixteen
silver phials to the Uspenski Sober and then at a special service
during Lent (usually Holy Thursday) consecrated by the Metro-
politan, and further hallowed by the addition of a few drops of
the oil from the vessel of ' Alabaster ' in which the Holy Chrism
was first brought into Russia from Constantinople, the vessel
having never been emptied, since the quantity taken for this
purpose is immediately replaced by the addition of that newly
made. The 'Alabaster' is a long-necked flask of copper,
wholly covered with scales of mother-of-pearl, and is supposed
to be of the same size and form as that box of ointment Mary
Magdalene offered Jesus.

"The library of the Synod contains about one thousand
Slavic MSS. on Church rites and copies of the scriptures, many
between the seventh and twelfth centuries, and five hundred
Greek MSS. of even earlier date. They were got together
by the patriarch Nikon for the purpose of comparison, and
restoring the ritual of the Russian Church to its original, or
at least earlier, rule. The printed books have mostly been
removed to other collections, and the MSS. are of interest only
to those well acquainted with the rites of the early Christian
Church, and such students are readily granted access to them."

199

The Story of Moscow

Such a brief account does scant justice to one of the
finest and most complete collections of ecclesiastical
furniture the world has produced; but, interesting as
some of the objects are to all beholders, it is to the
student of ecclesiasticism that they will appeal with
greatest force. To him also, the technique of ritual ;
the customs appertaining to the dispersion of relics
among newly-built churches and restoration of those
injured by time and accident ; together with many other
matters of Church rule and procedure which find illus-
tration in this collection, should prove both attractive
and instructive. Of greater general interest is the story
of the struggle between orthodoxy and heterodoxy, the
rise of heresy and states of different forms of dissent ;
that dramatic movement of ecclesiasticism which is
world wide, continuous, and of perennial concern to all.

Whatever heresies may have existed in early Russia,
with the ascendancy of Moscow these perished, and the
prelates had only to guard against the wiles of Rome
and to stay its power on the confines of the kingdom.
During the reign of Vasili the Blind the unsuccessful
attempt of the Metropolitan Isidor to introduce Romish
practices intensified the conservatism of the prelates.
In 1582, Anthony Possevin, a Jesuit emissary of
the Pope, Gregory XIII., had long discussions with
Ivan the Terrible in the Granovitaia Palata respecting
the union of the Churches. Ivan was outspoken: the
emissary returned unsatisfied.

The false Dmitri's view has already been given : he
was overthrown and the supremacy of the orthodox
prelates increased by Boris Godunov's initiation of the
Patriarchate. The Tsar Michael and his father Philaret
appear to have been always in accord, and then the tem-
poral power of the prelates was equal to that of the
sovereign. Alexis, a boy of seventeen, was unfortunate
in having as collaborator the sturdy Nikon. After his
200

Moscow of the Ecclesiastics

absence in the war against the Poles he found Nikon,
as Veliki Gossudar, a title reserved for the Tsars, ab-
solutely autocratic. The Tsar objected to the use of
the tide by the Patriarch ; Nikon resigned his office,
and retired to the Vosskresenki Monastery on the
Varvarka, expecting Alexis would seek him, but the
Tsar did not visit him nor did he appoint another
patriarch. Nikon had already given great offence to
the clergy for, attracted by some text on one of the
ecclesiastical vestments that had been received from
Greece, he recognised a considerable difference between
the Greek rendering and that current in Slavonic ; pro-
secuting his investigations further he found many dis-
crepancies and tried in all things to revert to the older
practice. His action was construed as the introduc-
tion of new procedure and consequently vigorously
opposed and orthodoxy split into two camps ; those
who agreed with the head of the Church that the ancient
practice was correct and should be introduced and the
more conservative who would not depart from that to
which they had been accustomed, and it is they who are
known as the " Old Believers," for the alterations pro-
posed by Nikon ultimately became general. Although
the Patriarch had resigned he continued to receive the
clergy and concern himself with the direction of ecclesi-
astical affairs. In 1654 he angered the people by going
into private chapels and houses and removing all copies
of the ikon Nerukotvorenni, " not made with hands,"
because unlike the ikons of Mount Athos. The priest
visited Moscow, and the people paraded the empty ikon
cases and the defaced ikons, attributing to this outrage
the plague from which so many suffered, and the clergy
then left Moscow in large numbers fearing assault. In
1659 the Tsar's emissaries informed him that he ought
no longer to interfere. He thereupon withdrew from
Moscow. In Advent 1664 he suddenly reappeared with

201

The Story of Moscow

many monks at early matins in the Uspenski Cathedral,
peremptorily ordered the officiating clergy to perform
certain offices. The clergy at once apprised the Tsar,
who in turn ordered his boyards to command Nikon
to leave the Cathedral. Nikon pleaded that he had
been instructed by Jonas in a vision to act as he had
done, but the Tsar only repeated the command ; he
stated then that he had power to heal the sick, but the
Tsar was inflexible and Nikon retired. At a council
in 1666 he was formally deposed, and withdrew to a
distant monastery where he continued his researches ;
he was pardoned by the Tsar Theodore in 1681 but
died whilst on his journey to meet his sovereign.

Joachim, the succeeding Patriarch, opposed Nikon's
innovations, and held tenaciously to the customary
practice and attempted to stifle schism by persecuting
relentlessly. He forbade Catholics to worship, banished
Jesuits, barely tolerated Calvinists and Lutherans, and
burned to death Kullman the German mystic for pro-
claiming false doctrines. When he died in 1690 he
besought Peter to drive all heretics and unbelievers
from Russia it is to him that Peter erected the chapel
on the Srietenka. As in 1682 and earlier, the "old
believers " had been cruelly tortured for not conforming
to the innovations of Nikon, more especially the unfor-
tunate and obstinate Boyarina Morozov and her sister
Princess Urusov, so with the change of the head of the
Church the people were condemned for such acts as
they had previously been commended for performing,
and now knew not whom to believe. With the
accession of Peter to sole power, and the enforcement
by him of practices foreign to former habit, the people
associated all his innovations with those purely clerical
ones which had recently met with opposition and
caused persecution and suffering. It was impossible to
stamp out opposition, exile but spread the discontent.
202

Moscow of the Ecclesiastics

When Peter quarrelled with the Church, the clergy
were unable to cope with the popular reaction against
the innovations of Nikon and his disciples. Peter was
at last induced to persecute the noncontents, but these,
disgusted with his secular innovations, fled into distant
parts of the country and even abroad, where for long
they were politically an element of grave danger to
the state, but, the rule of Nikon was established and
the old believers regarded as Raskolniki, or dissenters.

These, under persecution, and lacking adequate direc-
tion again split into two sections ; one, the popovtsi, or
those who acknowledge the priesthood and depend for
their clergy upon schismatics from among the orthodox,
who after ordination, find their practice preferable.

They are quite insignificant in comparison with the
Bezpopovtsi, or those who do not have ordained
priests, but are more powerful because united, whereas
the bezpopovtsi number as many different brotherhoods
as there are distinct dissenting sects in England. The
best known among these are the Dukhobortsi, who deny
the divinity of the Holy Ghost, strongly oppose civil
authority, refuse to pray for their sovereign or the head
of the orthodox church, and consider death by starva-
tion or fire, so long as it is self-wrought, to be the
highest duty. Nearly akin to them are the terrible
Skoptsi or mutilators, and the fanatic Kklysti, or
Flagellants, and many others. To the orthodox
church all who are not s/avopravni are alike. The
civil government has always discriminated between the
harmless and those whose tenets are opposed to the
welfare of the individual and to the commonwealth.

The orthodox regard the discussion as terminated :
the Tsaritsa Sophia herself was present in the Grano-
vitaia Palace, at the discussions of the Patriarch with
the chief of the Ras Kolniks, a fanatic Nikita. There
were stormy scenes ; at the close each sect claimed

203

to have the right, and for long afterwards there were
frequent discussions between the supporters of both
parties, around the porch of the Blagovieshchenski
Sobor.

Of the churches of the orthodox, the number in

CHUkCH AND GATE OF MARY OF VLADIMIR

Moscow is indeed great ; add to these the cathedrals,
the new Xram, chapels, monasteries and convents,
and the claim of Moscow to its title of City of Churches
will not be questioned. It is quite impossible even to
enumerate those worth seeing. Instead take a typical
street, say the Nikolskaya in the busiest part of the
204

Moscow of the Ecclesiastics

commercial Kitai-Gorod. It contains the Monastery
of the Images, Za-ikono-spassky Monastyr once,
1679, an academy ; Church of the Virgin of Kazan,
interesting as founded in 1630 by Prince Pojarski ; the
Nikolaevski Monastyr, Greek, founded in 1556, and in
1 669, with two churches ; opposite it the old Monastery
of the Epiphany, Bogoyavlenni, founded in 1396, with
a church to Boris and Gleb and several others of lesser
note a large establishment with an extensive cemetery
but the buildings of course modern. The Synodalia
Typografiia ; the printing house of the Synod, founded
in 1645, the facade always painted a light blue, with
the lion and unicorn, and other Byzantine decora-
tions, in white. Then near the Vladimirski Vorot,
the church to the Virgin, dating from the time of the
boy-Tsars, Ivan and Peter, and opposite the second
largest monastery, and most often used church in the
Kitai gorod, that of the Trinity. In all eleven churches
or chapels within less than 200 yards and that is
characteristic of Moscow. Among other tserkvi well
worth seeing are:

Kitai-Gorod. In the Varvarka : St Barb, St George the Martyr,
St Maxim the Confessor, and the Monastery of the Resurrec-
tion. In the Ilyinka: St Nicholas of the Great Cross, St
Elias. Also the Holy Trinity in the Cherkassky, St Anne in
the Zariadi, and of the Virgin of Georgia, but St Ipatius is in
the Ipatievski, and St Nicholas near the Moskvretski Bridge.

Bielo-GoroJ. The Srietenka, built by John Taylor; All
Saints, the Transfiguration, and the Manifestation.

20 5

CHAPTER X
Moscow of the Citizens

" Fair Moscow crowned : now towering high
And, seated on her throne of hills,
A glorious pile from days gone by."

DMITRIEV.

DETER "THE GREAT" who is credited with
having created the history of Russia did little for
Moscow, a town he, after his travels abroad, always
despised and constantly distrusted. He evicted the last
private owners from the Kremlin, and spoiled its palaces
and treasures, but took no measures to enhance its beauty
or increase its wealth. It is customary to date progress
and civilisation from his reign ; an anonymous Russian
poet has even written :

(< Russia and Russia's strength lay hid in dreary night ;
God said ' Let Peter be ' straightway they burst to light,"

but, so far as Moscow is concerned, his coming would
be more truthfully regarded as of the nature of an
eclipse than as the harbinger of light. Probably his
reputation is due to the prominence of his person in
western Europe where it is .customary to mistake
renown for greatness rather than his achievements.

Peter forsook Moscow, left her to the Church, which
he served badly and to her citizens, whom he treated
even worse. Benevolence was foreign to his character ;
he could not mould Moscow to his ideal if a passing
whim can be so termed but before he realised his
206

Moscow of the Citizens

impotence in this, he became brutal and fierce. He
quarrelled with the Church, cruelly ill used his wife
whom he forsook eventually, shamefully treated his
blood-relations even torturing his half-sisters him-
self, and was to his subjects such a father as he
proved to his own unfortunate son Alexis, who was
done to death at his hands ; in all these things behaving
so savagely that even the strongest were awed into
hypocrisy. The citizens of Moscow considered them-
selves the children of the Father of the people the
Tsar who lived in the Kremlin who cared for
them and never ceased to be anxious for their welfare.
He alone was responsible for their direction, with
him was the Church, they knew not how to act in-
dependently. The streltsi, the fighting men, the
armed citizens, were first of the Moscow townsmen to
act of their own initiative, but they were disciplined
men who trusted their leaders even when betrayed.

Peter exterminated the streltsi, the men who first of
all his subjects had supported his claims and protected
his rights ; it is in connection with the streltsi that
Peter is most enduringly associated with Moscow.
The scenes of that long struggle were, for the most
part, enacted outside the Kremlin ; in the Kitai-Gorod
of the merchants, in the Bielo-Gorod of the free-
men, in the sloboda of the foreign settlers, and the
Preobrajenski quarter where Peter was reared. It is
this Moscow that has suffered most from the invader
and from fire ; its memorials of antiquity are few,
those appertaining to Peter the Great and his time
may be counted on the fingers of one mutilated hand.
The most conspicuous marks are those of the Church.
Continuing by that route indicated in the last chapter,
on issuing by the Valdimirski Gate from the Kitai-
Gorod, the road north is the Big Lubianka, running
along the crest of the hill towards the old village of

207

The Story of Moscow

Kuchko, long since incorporated with the town ; on
the right hand is the palace of that Count Rostopchin
who ordered the destruction of Moscow in 1812; on
the left at the corner of the Kuznetski Most is the

SR1ETENKA SOKHAREV BASHN1A

old church, set apart from time immemorial for the
benediction of fruit. As an old writer states, "the
Mahommedans would as soon eat pork as a Russian
unconsecrated apples." Further on, also on the
left is the old monastery of the Srietenka (Meeting),
founded by Vasili Dmitrivich in gratitude of the
deliverance of Moscow threatened by the Tartars
under Tamerlane in 1397; rebuilt by Theodore IL
208

Moscow of the Citizens

and containing a chapel to the Patriarch Joachim,
constructed by Peter I. in 1706. It has two other
old churches, one dedicated to St Nicholas, and the
other to the Egyptian Virgin Mary, neither of particular
interest. This is a part of Moscow longest inhabited
by the peasant class, and continuing on past the
boulevard, which marks the old wall of the Bielo-
Gorod, the Srietenka traverses the Zemliana Gorod,
or earthen town, until the Sadovia is reached, where
was once the by no means formidable rampart of the
outer wall ; beyond this the Miaschanska continues the
road to the Kammer College earth rampart at the
Krestovski-Zastava. Beyond that is the highway
to Ostankina, the Marina Roshcha, and the village of
Mordva. The eighteenth church passed after leaving
the Grand Square is dedicated to the Trinity and is
remarkable for a number of small shops within its walls,
the windows but a couple of feet high and the ceiling
so near the pavement that buyers have to stoop or
kneel to bargain. An old order forbids that shops be
within a church, and a more recent one, any without
it. These being neither within nor without continue
unmolested. In this district the Streltsi were living
at the close of the seventeenth century, and a little
further on is the Sukharev Bashnia, Peter's memorial
to the fidelity of a regiment of the force he exterminated.
It is a curious pile : an octagonal tower rises 200
feet above the roadway over high archways and a
large two-storeyed gallery above them. The beholder
who is told that this is like a ship will possess the
credulity of Polonius if he assent ; but actually Peter
modelled it as a ship to serve for the elementary
instructions of his future sailors. As all know, Peter
derived his idea of ships from the Dutch, but even that
explains little and leaves much to the imagination.
As remote is the connection of Sukharev with ships
o 209

The Story of Moscow

and the sea, so if not exactly a suitable monument
for an officer of Moscow's soldiery it was what Peter
thought would serve his purpose better than any other
design. Its closest connection with ships is at present ;
as a water tower it is not wholly useless still. Its archi-
tecture is not remarkable, a mixture of Lombard with
Gothic that might have resulted from copying the
Vosskresenski Gate and substituting a tall straight tower
for the ornate Gothic spires then the fashion in Moscow.
Considered a ship the tower is the mast, the rooms
below are supposed to resemble the poop-deck and
quarter-galleries of an old man-of-war. The entrance
is by a flight of steps from the Srietenka ; in the large
room a number of Moscow youths were instructed in
arithmetic by a Scotch schoolmaster named Farquharson,
and two Christ Church scholars, Gwynne and Graves,
whom Peter held practically as prisoners there. Some-
times these pupils were taken to St Petersburgh to
drive piles for foundations of the new town, at others
they were exercised in elocution and deportment that
they might the better represent comedies for the
diversion of the Court.

The teachers of the school knew nothing of Russian
and the scholars only their native tongue such was
Peter's way. Unhappy the scholars

3ane paayMt uecb coGpait H ^nrn,
pvcKiu, HC Hi>M4nin>.*

It is said a lodge of Freemasons used once to meet
in a room of the tower, and there not only were
"black arts" practised but Peter convened secret
meetings of the State Council, a sort of Star Chamber.
The society of "Neptune" really consisted of Lefort

* " Stolid, forlorn, mum and glum,

Being Russian born not deaf and dumb."

2 IO

Moscow of the Citizens

the Swiss General, Archbishop Theofan, Admiral
Apraxin, Farquharson, Bruce, and Princes Cherkassky,
Galitzin, Menshikov, and Sheremetiev. Those in fact
who were for westernising Russia.

The story of the Streltsi and the part they played in the
history of Moscow is worth telling. They originated with
the oprichniks of Ivan the Terrible : transformed into a sort of
hereditary militia, they fought for Moscow when called upon,
and in return were allowed to reside tax free, to trade, to
keep shops, mills and ply various handicrafts. Their com-
mandants tried to make serfs of them. When some complained
that the colonel of one regiment was keeping back half the
pay, Yazikov, the chief of the commanders, ordered these
petitioners to be flogged so as to teach them not to complain
of those in authority over them. Three days before Theodore
II. died, they accused Griboiedov of extortion, cruelty and
withholding pay and forcing them to work for him housebuild-
ing, even during Easter week. This complaint reached Dol-
goruki : he ordered the messenger to be flogged, but as the
man was led away he called to his fellows, "Brothers, I was
but obeying your orders," thereupon they attacked the guard
and released him. Complaints became general : it was practi-
cally a revolt of the armed citizens the government had to
fear. For the moment it yielded. Griboiedov was ordered
to Siberia, but after only a day's imprisonment reinstated.
The Streltsi became alarmed. On the death of Theodore they,
among themselves, took the oath of fealty to Peter. Sophia
and her advisers intrigued and split the Streltsi. One regiment
under Sukharev remained faithful to the secret oath, to Peter, the
Naryshkins and Matvievs : the others demanded and received
their colonels whom they flogged Griboiedov with the knout,
the others with rods their property was confiscated, and the
claims of the Streltsi paid. The Sukharev regiment took
Peter and his mother to the Troitsa Monastery for safety, and it
is in commemoration of this action that the Tower was built.

The real cause of the later conflict arose from a
deeper trouble, the struggle for the throne between
the children of Alexis by his first wife, and Peter the
eldest of those by his second. Ivan was weak, but
his sister Sophia, with her lover Galitzin and a court
following opposed to the innovations to be expected of

21 I

The Story of Moscow

Naryshkins' friends, supported him most loyally. The
Streltsi insisted that Peter should reign conjointly with
Ivan and carried their point, but Sophia, as regent,
was entrusted with certain powers. Both princes were
crowned in 1682, but, owing to intrigues, the court
was divided into two factions the supporters of
Ivan and Sophia, of Peter and the Matvievs. The
Khovanskis were accused of compassing the death
of Theodore, and beheaded. Doubts as to Peter's
parentage were expressed ; the trouble made previous
to the marriage of Natalia was remembered ; others
declared that Peter was a changeling, really the son
of Dr Van Gaden. Peter himself, according to the
picture of his patron saint painted on a board his exact
size on the day of birth, was then some twenty inches
long by five and a half broad. Moreover, there was a
doggerel song of the period :

" What luck, oh, what joy ! To the Tsar has been given
A heir, aye, a boy ! sent us from heaven !
Tis wondrous ! 'tis rich ! With laughter and mirth,
Great Peter Alexevich, first lord of the earth ! "

Peter is said once to have met his reputed father,
a rough haunter of taverns in the foreign suburb.
Throwing him roughly to the ground Peter determined
to learn whether or not he was his father. " Batuch
ka ! How should I know I was not the only one,"
the fellow is reported to have answered ; but it was
only a stale and salacious witticism of the sort Peter
loved certainly not evidence. The struggle was further
complicated by camps of orthodox and dissenters. It
was fought to the bitter end by Sophia on behalf of
her mother's children, against Peter who was only her
father's son ; on behalf of herself too, for she had a
lover, and no liking for the seclusion of the cloisters
to which the daughters of the orthodox Tsars were
212

Moscow of the Citizens

relegated because they were of too high birth to wed
with their father's subjects, and their faith which they
were not allowed to relinquish an effectual barrier to
matrimony with a foreign prince. At first the revolt
of the Streltsi had little political significance beyond the
fact that it was the forcible demand of a part of the
citizens for common justice.

For seven years Sophia directed the affairs of state
with more or less success ; Ivan was simply her tool,
with Peter she had greater trouble, and in 1689,
after a quarrel with her, he withdrew from Moscow
and went to Troitsa. A large party followed him.
Sophia feared revolt and appealed to the people in
an eloquent address of three hours' duration.

" Wicked people have sown the seeds of discord ; have made
my brother Peter believe his life is in danger. Do not credit
such rumours. Do not allow these to lead astray those faithful
to the throne : they will torture such until they can no longer
endure, and nine persons will denounce nine hundred. You
know how I have directed the affairs of this state for seven
years ; have made a glorious peace with Poland, and worsted
in battle the Turks and infidels ; how I have always thought
of your needs and striven for your welfare. As I have already
done so shall I continue."

Sophia thought she had won over the crowd ; instead
this speech lost her the support of influential leaders.
When Galitzin left Moscow there was a general rush
of the people to Peter ; then her friends were seized
by his order and she tried to escape to Poland, but
was captured and imprisoned in the Novo Devichi
Convent where she was forced to take the veil as
Susannah, and lived in strict confinement until 1704.
Ivan was thrust aside ; Peter usurped the throne, his
weakly half-brother surviving until 1 696. Then Peter
married Eudoxia Lapukhin, daughter of a boyard.
Trouble next arose when Peter, against the advice
of nobles and clergy, went abroad and worked like

213

The Story of Moscow

a slave under foreign rulers ; it was considered sacrilege
of God's anointed so to do, and of its impolicy there
were soon signs, and Peter hurriedly returned to stamp
out discontent. He had found a new love, one Anna
Mons, a German in Moscow, and would have married
her but she slighted him and took one of her own
countrymen ; his wife he refused to see, accusing her
of " certain thwartings and suspicions." He wished
also for proof of Sophia's connection with the discontent
amongst the Streltsi and people ; in this, notwithstand-
ing all his energy and cruelty, he was unsuccessful.

" Peter on his return reopened the inquiry, and fourteen
torture chambers were conducted under his surveillance in the
Preobrajenski suburb. The fires were never allowed to burn
down, nor the gridirons on which his victims were charred to
become cool either by night or day. A most compromising
letter from Sophia to the Streltsi is generally considered to be
a forged document, made up of stray, incoherent scraps of
information wrung from maddened creatures in the torture
chamber. Whereas fifteen blows with the knout were equal to
a capital sentence, one of the Streltsi was put to the torture
seven times and received in all ninety-nine blows, yet confessed
nothing. Korpatkov, unable to bear his tortures, killed him-
self. Others of the Streltsi having been put to the strappado,
flogged, and burnt without getting any accusations ; the wives,
sisters and female relatives of the Streltsi were tortured ; so
were the ladies and sewing women in attendance on Sophia.
Still no evidence was forthcoming. Then Sophia herself was
put to the torture, Peter doing the hangman's work. She
never wavered in denying all connection with the movement.
Her younger sister, Marfa, was then strung up in turn and
all that could be learned of her was that she had apprised her
sister Sophia of the return of the Streltsi to Moscow and of
their desire to see her rule re-established. Peter was unweary-
ing in (his attendance in the torture chambers, and it is said*
took a fiendish delight in the agony his own wrought cruelties
produced on his relatives, but when he failed to obtain evidence
he determined to punish indiscriminately. The executions of
the Streltsi, like those of Ivan the Terrible's victims, were in

* Kostomarov, vol. ii. p. 516.
2I 4

Moscow of the Citizens

wholesale fashion. Five were beheaded just outside the torture
chamber by the Tsar Peter himself; the courtiers of his body-
guard he commanded to do the same, thinking doubtless they
would enjoy the shedding of blood even as he did. Two
foreigners alone refused to comply with this order. Some
zoo Streltsi were crucified, impaled or hanged before Sophia's
windows in the Novo Devichi Convent : but most were exe-
cuted in the Grand Square under the wall of the Kremlin,
viz. :

200 on Sept. 3oth, 1698

144 , Oct. nth,

205
141
109

65

106

1 2th,

13 th .
i 7 th,
i8th,
1 9th,

" On some occasions a tree was used as a block ; the victims
placed in rows along it, and their heads struck off by men of
Peter's new guard. Others were hanged; as late as 1727 the
heads stuck on pike points stood round the Lobnoe Mesto.
In January 1699 came more enquiries, more tortures, more
executions, and then the extermination of the Streltsi deter-
mined upon. There was a break from 1699 to 1704 as Peter
required the remaining Streltsi to aid in the wars against
Swedes and others, but after the revolt in Astrakhan, the
executions were renewed. Stragglers and deserters from the
corps, those related to them and who associated with them, were
placed under a ban they might not be employed by anyone ;
none might give them food, shelter, or assistance. They
perished miserably. In such manner did Peter exterminate
the old Muscovite militia."

Peter's cruelties, like those of Ivan Groznoi, did not
pass unnoticed by the Church. His treatment of the
Streltsi called forth a fierce denunciation from the
Patriarch Adrian, who " beseeched him in the name
of the Mother of God to desist." " Get thee home ! "
answered Peter, " I know that I reverence God and
his most Holy Mother ; more, perhaps, than thou dost
thyself. It is the duty of my sovereign office, and a
duty I owe to God, to punish with the utmost severity
crimes that threaten the general welfare." Unfortun-

215

The Story of Moscow

ately the Church had been deprived of its privilege of
intercession for the life of one accused, and Peter
cared nought for the spiritual power of the Church, as
already stated. He even with his own hand killed
two priests, but afterwards expressed contrition. The
Church regarded him almost as anti-christ ; the citizens
dreaded him and kept out of his way. " The nearer
the Tsar the greater the danger," a proverb of that
time was believed in by all. Peter had his proverb
also, " the knout is no angel but teaches men to speak
the truth," and even as Ivan did, he went constantly
in fear of conspiracies, chiefly dreading his own relations.
Eudoxia, now the nun Helena in a convent at Suzdal,
was believed to have corresponded with Dositheus
an Archimandrite who had predicted, or prayed for,
Peter's death. Glebov was the intermediary in the
matter ; he was impaled ; the prelate was broken on
the wheel ; a brother of the ex-tsaritsa was tortured
and beheaded ; thirty others were executed or exiled,
and Eudoxia herself flogged and confined in an isolated
convent at New Ladoga. Peter, when there were no
more conspirators, or accused, offered a bribe of six
roubles to all who made secret accusations, and
threatened with severe penalties any who held back
information. The better to protect his informers from
reprisals by the people, they went through the streets
with their faces veiled, in order to search for those
whose names they did not know, but whom they had
overheard in indiscreet speech. The people hid away
when " the tongue," as the masked informer was called,
was abroad in the streets, and for days the city would
appear to be quite deserted.

" Peter was hairless and decreed that those who could grow
beards should not be allowed to wear them. Ivan Naumov
was flogged because he would not shave; 100 roubles was
the ordinary fine for wearing a full beard, and many paid the

2l6

Moscow of the Citizens

tax repeatedly rather than submit to Peter's order. These
had also to wear a badge with the legend ' a beard is a useless
inconvenience,' and pay a fine whenever passing the Redeemer
Gate. There is a touch of irony in the fact that Peter died of
a chill which, may be, the full beard of a Moscow Oteti would
have prevented. Although Peter was epileptic, he had no
mercy for those who suffered similarly. A woman, who in
addition to this infirmity was also blind, was put to the torture
for disturbing a congregation. A tipsy man had thirty lashes
with the knout for committing the like offence. A woman
who found strange chalk marks on a barrel of beer in her
cellar, knew not what they meant, nor did any one else ; but
she was put to the torture, and died under it because unable
to decipher them. Those whom Peter wished specially to
honour he made hangmen. An old boyard who liked not
salad, as ' sour things did not agree with him,' was made to
empty a large bottle of vinegar by Peter ; and a Jewess in his
company who declined to drink to the extent Peter wished,
was there and then beaten by him and made to drink much
more."

It was an unequal struggle : a powerful autocrat
attempting to force a proud, stubborn people from the
habits they had been taught to revere, from practices
that had made their city great and beautiful. The more
successful Peter became the greater was the opposition.
His courtiers wore wigs at court, as commanded, but
even in the throne room removed them immediately
Peter was out of sight. After ten years Peter knew
that he could not conquer the Muscovites though he
might kill them. As late as 1722, when he had ordered
all ladies above ten years of age to appear at a reception,
only seventy of the hundreds qualified did as commanded.
At St Petersburg it was different. There, no feeling
of shame, no loss of dignity followed the, to Moscow
citizens, most ridiculous behaviour of westerns. Peter's
son Alexis, the Tsarevich, preferred Moscow and
Muscovite customs : in him Moscow trusted, and for
this Peter hated him. His friends wished him to
enter a monastery until his father's death and then " as

217

The Story of Moscow

\

they cannot nail the cowl to one's head," throw it off
and assume the crown. He did not, and his boast to
forsake St Petersburg and reinstate Moscow enraged

Peter who, from that time,
never ceased to search for
conspiracies, prompted by,
or on behalf of Alexis,
and persecuted his son un-
mercifully. As all knew
the young man was
' - lured to St Petersburg
by his mistress, who
was lavishly rewarded
for her perfidy by Peter,
and that there he was re-
peatedly put to the torture,
more than once with
Peter himself as exe-
cutioner, and that he
died mysteriously one day
after being " put to the
question," i.e. tortured,
earlier in the day by a
party of whom his father
was one.

The Matviev's lived in
that part of the city just
outside the Kitai-gorod,
where Alexis had settled
a number of little Russians from the newly-acquired
territory, the Ukraine. The Marosseika preserves
the name of this settlement, and passing up it from the
Lubianski Ploshchad, leaving All Saints' church on the
right, Armianski, a street on the left, will soon be
reached. There, a couple of hundred yards along, on
the left is the old parish church of St Nicholas, built by
218

ST NICHOLAS " STYL1TE "

Moscow of the Citizens

Mikhail Theodorovich, contiguous to the house of the
Matviev's and the Tsarista Natalia, where is now the
tomb of the old voievode a mean mausoleum, in the
classic style. The church shows but few traces of
western influence : it is of two storeys like most of the
churches of the seventeenth century and is surrounded
with a gallery, formerly open, but now glazed between
the pillars. Near by is the Lazarev Institute, for the
study of eastern languages, and peeping over the trees
will be seen the green domes and pink belfry of the
Monastery of St John Chrysostom, with five churches
of which the oldest was founded by Ivan Vasilievich
in 1 479 ; the entrance is from the Zlato-ustinski pereulok.
Opposite the Armianski is the Kosmo-Damianski
pereulok, with the Lutheran Church founded in 1582
by the Englishman Horsey for the foreign colony.

Continuing along the Marosseika, past the Church of
the Assumption (p. 89), an interesting church will be
found on the right, that of the Pokrovka (Protection),
and further along the same street, where it changes its
name to the Basmannia, the church of Vasili Ivanovich
built in 1517 and reconstructed in 1751, to which
latter date its architecture belongs. Turning into the
Sadovia on the left, in the Furmanni pereulok, the
second on the left, will be found the oldest large house
in Moscow, the residence of Prince Usupov, quite
in the style of the early seventeenth century. The
entrance is from the Charitonievski Boulevard, the next
turning on the left. The whole of this district suffered
much from the fires of past centuries and only such
buildings as these isolated churches and houses in their
own courtyards escaped the general conflagration. A
little further along the Sadovia is the " Krasnce Vorot "
or Red Gate to mark the old tower on the outer wall.
It was built as a triumphal arch for the Empress
Elizabeth on her coronation, when tables spread with

219

The Story of Moscow

viands for the people reached from there to the Kremlin
wall. The French made it a butt for musketry practice,
using sacred ikons for a bull's eye.

Architecture of a different type is to be found in
that residential quarter of the city between the Kremlin
and the Prechistenka Boulevard. Behind the Riding
School is the Mokhovaia, a street to which front both
Universities and the Dom Pachkov, an old mansion in
which is stored the Rumiantsev art collection and
museum of antiquities. The entrance is in the Vogan-
kovski pereulok, near the Znamenka.* It contains :

(a) Foreign ethnological museum.

() TheDashkov ethnographical collection of Slavic antiquities;
life size figures of the races inhabiting Russia ; in another hall
of Slavic races inhabiting Austrian and other adjacent lands.

(c} Mineralogical collection.

(<^ Zoological collection ; includes mammoth and Musco-
vite and Siberian fossils.

(<r) Slav and Christian antiquities, consisting mostly of early
specimens of eastern iconography from Mount Athos, and
archaeological fragments. They are in four rooms on the upper
storey, and one ikon of Mosaic is particularly interesting, as
are also many of the specimens of Byzantine and Muscovite
enamel and niello, including an eleventh century Gold Cross.

(f) Picture Galleries. Copies of Flemish, Spanish, Italian
and other schools, and the Pryanichnikov collection of Russian
artists, of which the best are: i-io by Ivanov; 42, 43,
Chiernakov ; 65, by Repin ; 157, 158, Aviazovski, and 201-103,
Chedrin.

(g) Manuscripts and early printed Slav books, some very
beautifully illustrated. This section is closed during July and
August.

(h) Library of 200,000 standard works, and old prints and
engravings.

The Russian school is seen to better advantage on
the south side of the Moskva river, in the Tretiakov
Galleries ( Lavrushenski pereulok ; open daily, I o to

* Open daily, 1 1 till 3 ; free on Sundays ; 20 kopeeks
entrance on other days.

22O

Moscow of the Citizens

4, except Mondays ; admission free, catalogue in
French, 20 kopeeks), a collection made by the
brothers Paul and Sergius Tretiakov, and now the
property of the town. Most of the pictures are modern
by native artists ; views of Moscow and of the historical
and interesting buildings in the town are by no means
numerous. Apparently Russian artists have not yet
discovered that the Kremlin, as seen from across the
river, is as good a subject as is the Piazza San Marco
at Venice, or any other hackneyed city scene in Europe.

Most noteworthy among the paintings illustrating the
history of Moscow are: The murder of Alexis by Ivan the
Terrible, by J. E. Repin (No. 782); a portrait of the same
Tsar, by V. N. Vasnetsov (No. 966) ; The Execution of the
Streltsi, by B. J. Surikov (No. 737); St Nikita, the impostor,
before the Tsarina Sophia, by B. G. Peroff (No. 733), and the
same Tsarina in the Novo devichi Convent during the execu-
tion of the Streltsi, by J. E Repin (No. 761). Some of the
ancient customs and costumes of Moscow are represented in No.
808, A Boyard Wedding, by C. B. Lebedev, and No. 1367, The
Handsel of Innocence, by Polenov an excellent specimen of
this painter's best work, who does not show to advantage in
his views of the Terem (Nos. 1356-1366) and church interiors
(Nos. 1349-1355). Instructive also are the sketches Nos. 304-
307, made by V. G. Schwartz to illustrate Count A. Tolstoi's
novel "Prince Serebrenni," and 308-311, those made to Ler-
montov's " Bread Seller."

Notable pictures taken from scenes in Russian history are :
The Battle of Igor SviatoslaPs son against the Polovsti (No.
950), by V. M. Vasnetsov ; The " Black Council," held during
the rebellion of monks at the Solovetski Monastery in 1666,
by S. D. Miloradovich (No. 742) ; Peter the Great questioning
his son Alexis, by N. N. Gay (No. 636 ; The Emancipation
of the Serfs in 1861, by G. G. Myassoiedov (No. 495), and
No 252, by C. D. Flavitski, the imprisonment of Princess
Tarakanov in the fortress of Sts. Peter and Paul, during a
rise of the Neva a sensational incident the truth of which
was questioned and disproved, when this picture was exhibited
at Paris in 1867. The incident represented in No. 394 by
N. B. Nevref, the enforced taking of the veil by the Princess
Usupov, was of such common occurrence in mediaeval Russia,
that no question as to its possibility need be raised. Some of

221

The Story of Moscow

the best of the war pictures of Vereshchagin are in this collec-
tion, and other painters have contributed works illustrating the
French invasion, and more recent events, in a style quite as
original and striking as that of the Russian artist best known
in western Europe. In all the subject appears to be far more
suggestive and interesting than the craftsmanship. This is
often weak, or worse, an unsatisfactory imitation of the most
impressive methods of the modern French school.

Religious pictures are numerous and good : N N. Gay is
represented in forty-six works which include " The Morning
of the Resurrection " (641), " The Remorse of Judas " (642),
"The Judgment" (643), "Golgotha" (645), "What is
Truth ? " (640), and " Christ in Gethsemane " (634). Several
of his studies of" Christ on the Cross " may be compared with
the work of T. A. Bronnikov, "Campus Scleratus " (461).
The conventional style of " Ikon " painting is evident in Nos.
717-730 by M. B. Nesterov, more particularly in the pictures
illustrating the life of St Sergius. No. 739, by B. J. Surikov,
represents the Boyarina Morosov being removed from among
the dissenting sect she did so much to establish.

The lighter, merrier, and more general life of the Russian
people is shown in a far greater number of pictures. Pryan-
ichnikov has humour as well as style (416-432), in 542,
Maximov shows the arrival of the " wizard " at a village
wedding; 682 is an every day village scene representing the
homage paid to the ikon on its visits; Yarochenko (701)
shows the transport van with its exiles committed for life
and the free birds of the air mocking them. Repin depicts
truthfully the happy life of the peasants; 766, a dance, 781,
" The Unexpected Return," 797, St Cene. In the same vein
are also 857, Lebedev " Farings " ; 863, Korovin, The Common
Council ; 775, 776, Answer of the Zaporogians to Mahomet's
ultimatum; 1221-1224, the Second-hand market at Moscow,
and 1256, An Evening's Amusement, are by V. G. Makovski ;
The Emigrants, No. 1520, by S. B. Ivanof, is depressing, but
in 930 Madam A. L. Rievski shows in " A Moment of
Gaiety " the true character of the peasant.

In the streets Znamenka and Vozdvigenka are some
characteristic Russian mansions of the eighteenth century,
for it was then that this quarter, which had formerly
been inhabited by palace servants and craftsmen, began
to take a more aristocratic character. That of Prince
Sheremetiev is the most bizarre ; there also is the old

222

Moscow of the Citizens

town hall and the Foreign Archives. In various parts
of the town, even on the south side in the Kaloujskaya,
will be found modern mansions, that is, erected or re-
built since the great fire, in the style of the Moscow of
the golden age. One of the best is the Dom Chukina
near the Tverskaya Triumfalnia a monument no visitor

DOM CHUKINA

can escape seeing. But there is no long street without
one or more buildings which attract the attention of the
stranger by some idiosyncracy of form or colour. No
matter in which direction one may go in the bustling
Kitai-Gorod, the quiet and aristocratic Ostogenka, or
the bourgeois Zamoskvoretski soon will be seen some
interesting fane reaching above the buildings that flank
the street, and a portal distinguished by its cross and
ikon indicate the entrance to the sacred enclosure of

223

The Story of Moscow

some monastery, where, amidst leafy foliage and bright
verdure, is quiet and seclusion like that of the oasis of
the Temple amidst the dreary turmoil of London's
vastness. Take that very ordinary street, the Nikits-
kaya for example ; it is wholly common place, wedged
in between districts devoted to ordinary commerce,
and the chilling respectability of moderate affluence,
and leads nowhere in particular. Yet even its name is
interesting ; did it obtain it from the worthy founder
of the Romanof dynasty ? or from the religious fanatic
who argued points of ritual with Sophia and the
Patriarch ? or from St Nikita, the saint who shut up
Satan in a jar and released him only on stipulated and
agreed conditions ?

It starts from the Alexander Gardens, the old
western bank of the stream Neglinnaia that once
strengthened the defences of the Kremlin ; passes the
entrance to the riding school, one of the great things
Moscow has produced since the fire of 1812. The
length of this building is 360 feet, breadth 168,
and its wooden roof, unsupported by perpendicular
stanchions, was considered a wonder of the world,
when Alexander first manoeuvered 2000 infantry, and
i ooo cavalry beneath it. Then come the Universities,
the old and the new, one on each hand ; beyond, on
the left, is the Nikitsky Monastery, enclosing four
churches, one dating from the founding of the monastery
in 1682, at the end of the "golden age." On the
opposite side is the Academy of Science, on this the
Conservatorium, facing it a quaint old church of
primitive architecture and diminutive size ; above its
lowly belfry rears the square brick-built tower of an
English Church. The house of a boyard here, of a
prince there, bear names of note in Moscow's history,
as Gagarin, Galitzin, Chernichev, designate the owners
of the houses on either side, and of the side streets
224

Moscow of the Citizens

to right and left. The further from the Kremlin, the
centre, the more frequent and greater the inducement
to turn aside to inspect more closely the glittering and
gaudy domes of churches, old and new, which are
thickly sprinkled over the whole district. Nor can
the stranger easily do amiss whichever way he turns.
If towards the left, a curious lofty belfry of open
masonry will repay careful scrutiny, and reveal close
by other domed and pinnacled temples, lost amidst this
multitude of white walls and luxuriant verdure. If to
the right, two churches in close proximity, of unique
design and, probably, oppressive colouring, will en-
courage to further explorations in the same direction.

The oldest churches in the neighbourhood of the
Arbat are, Boris and Gleb, 1527; Tikhon, the wonder-
worker, 1689 ; but the Church of the Transfiguration
is one of the most beautiful. In the Povarskaya, is
that of St Simon Stylite, 1676, and near, another in-
teresting church Rojdestvenka.

Probably Moscow does not charm so strongly by
reason of any particular building or style as by the
great diversity of its houses and churches, both in
design and colouring. More especially in those
quarters where the wooden log-houses still linger in
their gardens, and where the frame-houses are all made
gay with white, cream, blue-gray, yellow and pink
body colour, and the roofs of dark green or still
darker crimson ; there Moscow seems to belong to
another world. It is, alas, disappearing fast, and the
spacious courtyards, with their trees and the gardens
gay with giant lilacs and golden-chain, are being
built on, and houses that stand shoulder to shoulder
in plain and hideous uniformity level up the largest
village to the standard of a modern town made in
Germany.

There is another aspect of Moscow which the
P 225

The Story of Moscow

summer visitor can never know. That comes when
the thermometer falls from its summer average of
64*9 F. to its winter average of 14 F. This
difference of 50 explains much that appears wanton
in the architecture of buildings great and small ;
accounts for the galleries round the outside of the
churches, for the extensive vestibules ; for thick walls,
still thicker roofs, and great spouts ; for the plain
surfaces and lack of projecting decorations, gargoyles
and angular mouldings ; for the distempered walls,
which alone successfully stand the biting frosts of winter
and the blistering summer sun.

With the change to winter temperature a great quiet
comes over the town, wheeled traffic is stopped, sledges
glide over the frozen roads, and from the windless
sky the great snowflakes can ever be seen idly and
slowly floating in their long and leisurely descent to
earth. A reddened sun appears for a short time each
day in a leaden sky, and Moscow lives, is more active,
more itself, than when the light of summer decks its
walls and pinnacles in holiday garb. But at whatever
season studied, Moscow will reveal traces of the past ;
will show that she has long smiled under the summer sun
of good fortune and been wrinkled by the winter of
adversity ; scorched, too, by the volcanic fire of her
own excesses, but now staid, hoary, strenuous, and of
surprising vitality in all 9mo MamyWKO, MOCK6CI.

226

CHAPTER XI
Ancient Customs and Quaint Survivals

" The customs are so quainte
As if I would describe the whole
I feare my penne would fainte."

G. TURBERVIIXE (1568).

CTRANGE and unaccountable to the men of the
Elizabethan age were the manners and customs
of the Muscovites ; at this day, some of the things
these early visitors minutely described seem scarcely
credible.

In many ways the life of the old boyards was not
unlike that of their Tsar. They fought and worshipped
and maintained state ; bought, sold and sought wealth
even as he did. There remain at least two old houses
of boyards in Moscow. One, the Potieshni Dvorets in
the Kremlin, formerly the dwelling of the Miloslavskis,
is at the present time chiefly useful as indicating the
architecture of a Russian house in mediasval times ;
and that only so far as the exterior is concerned, for
the internal arrangements have been so many times
altered as to bear now but little resemblance to a
typical dwelling of the seventeenth century. The
other house, the Palata Romanovykh, or Dom Romanof,
was at one time the dwelling of the Romanof family
and has been restored to as nearly as possible resemble
the state in which it was when the Tsar Michael was
elected to the throne in 1613. It is situated in the

227

'The Story of Moscow

Varvarka, contiguous to the spot on which the English
factory stood, and in addition to being a museum of
minor antiquities serves well to illustrate some of the
habits of the nobles of Moscow in the sixteenth
century, for the house belonged to Nikita Romanof,
grandfather of the Tsar Michael, who himself gave
the house in which his own father was born to the
adjoining monastery. Incorporated with those build-
ings, it shared their vicissitudes ; was injured by fire
repeatedly, altered, added to, then spoiled and sacked
by the French.

It is not a large house : the frontage to the Varvarka
is scarcely sixty feet and built on sloping ground it
presents but one storey to this street. The principal
entrance was from its own courtyard, where the south
front presents four storeys looking over the Moskva
(u. page 108).

The ground floor is of undoubted antiquity ; brick
built, plastered and painted. On this foundation is
reared the wooden house in the true Russian style.
The low clock tower over the entrance has for a
weather vane, a grifHn, the arms of the Romanofs ; the
windows are small, ogival, and glazed with mica panes.

It is impossible that in so small a house there could
have been any accommodation for the multitude of
retainers and body servants a boyard had always about
his house. These lived in separate dwellings around
the courtyard. The ground floor of Russian houses
consisted of cellars and storerooms. In these vaults
were kept : wine, mead, kvas, ice, frozen and salted
meats and fish. The next storey in this house consists
of kitchens and domestic offices in a house not built
upon sloping ground, these would be on the ground
floor. The first floor, the Bel etage, which, in all
old Russian buildings houses, churches and shops
is reached by steps very similar to those from the
228

Ancient Customs and Quaint Survivals

courtyard to the Varvarka street level in the Dom
Romanof.

Entering the vestibule from the Varvarka, on the
right are two small rooms, one for the use of attendants
the other now fitted as a nursery, but undoubtedly
originally an ante-chamber. The largest room on this

KRESTOVAIA IN THE DOM ROMANOF

floor is called Krestovaia, or Chamber of the Cross.
It was the state-room. Here the boyard received the
priests who came at Easter-tide, Christmas, and other
feasts and on special occasions to offer congratulations
or perform sacred offices. The roof is vaulted, and, in
addition to the niches seen in the walls, there are secret
recesses for the concealment of treasure. In the " sacred
corner " is an ancient ikon, and on the table before it,
covered with a rich Persian cloth, are two crosses.
The stand, or mountain, was the rack on which, upon
all solemn or festive occasions, the family plate was

229

displayed. Among the old treasures preserved here
are a cocoa-nut shell mounted as a drinking-cup, and
various other curious drinking-cups, bowls, and vases ;
an equestrian statuette, silver-gilt, of Charles I., a gift
from that monarc' i to the Tsar Michael ; two ewers
presented by Charles II. ; a silver salt cellar, and a
pmso'tr presented by Martha Ivanovna, wife of the
Patriarch, to her son the Tsar in 1618. No doubt
it was in this room that the great banquets given by the
boyard took place, but ordinarily the boyard would eat
in his own apartment, his wife in hers. From this
room a doorway leads to the private room of the
boyard. This "study " is heated by a stove of coloured
tiles, variously ornamented and bearing quaint inscrip-
tions and designs, as a tortoise, " There is no better
house than one's own " ; doves, " Fidelity unites us."
The cases contain some of the personal attire and
weapons of the early boyards and their descendants,
as : a silk mantle, some swords and daggers, a staff,
the sceptre of the Tsar Michael, riding-boots, walking-
sticks, and the like. The high narrow-heeled riding-
boots are very curious, so too, on the copper inkstands,
as antique in appearance as those of Chaucer's day, will
be seen the lion and unicorn, a Byzantine device often
found in Russia. There is also a low seat used for
writing, for the Russian placed the paper upon his
knees, not on a table ; his lines were not straight, and
much good paper was wasted.

There is an oratory communicating with this four-
windowed apartment, also two rooms used as nurseries ;
one for boys, the other for girls. In these close, small
rooms the children were reared, for it was the habit of
the Russians not only to hide their children from all
strangers, but to keep them from all but their most
intimate friends and relatives.

A small doorway leads to a steep narrow staircase
230

Ancient Customs and Quaint Survivals

communicating with the top storey, the terem or women's
apartments, consisting of a reception room, a bed-
chamber and turret ; from these rooms the nursery may
also be reached by a still narrower staircase. The
walls of the reception room are covered with stamped
leather, the woodwork is carved in high relief, the
stiff benches round the wall have stuffed seats and are
covered with brocade. There are a number of old
coffers and close wardrobes, also some curious clothing
is displayed in cases.

The four-post bedstead cannot be considered a
native institution. It is peculiarly Scandinavian. The
English adopted it from the Danes ; the English re-
introduced it into Russia, rinding that the Russians
themselves slept either on the stove, or on an eastern
divan. More than once the early English ambassadors
to Russia have complained that bedsteads were lacking,
and it was long before their use became general.

The boyards kept their women folk hidden away in
the terem in almost eastern seclusion. Jenkinson states
that " the women be very obedient to their husbands,
and are kept straitly from going abroad but at some
seasons." Other travellers write that the women are
hardly used by their husbands, who beat them unmerci-
fully ; " and the women, though young and strong,
never resent even if the husband be old and weak."
Herberstein relates that a foreigner in Moscow married
to a Russian woman was upbraided by his wife because
he never beat her as Russian husbands did their wives,
and that he then beat her to please her ; but as sub-
sequently he cut off her legs, and finally her head also,
the story is worth nothing as evidence of a custom.

Sylvester in his " Domostroi " says a wife ought
never to take the title of Lady, but always to look on
her husband as Lord. She was to concern herself
only with household affairs, and might be treated like a

231

The Story of Moscow

slave ; only the husband is enjoined " not to use a too
thick stick, or a staffe tipped with iron, nor to humiliate
unduly by flogging before men."

Out of doors she was carried in a shuttered litter,
and she wore the fata or veil ; a special part of the
church was assigned women, but the wives and
daughters of the boyards usually worshipped in their
own private chapels, and went to the Cathedrals but
upon special and state occasions. Then it was that
suitors caught a glimpse of their future brides, and
received glances which bespake love.

As among eastern nations, the bridegroom usually
did not see his wife before marriage. When the
preliminaries had been arranged and settled by third
parties, the bridegroom sent a present of sweetmeats and
a whip to his bride elect, who always spent the night
before the marriage ceremony at the house of the bride-
groom's parents. On the day of the marriage he put
into one of his boots sweetmeats or a trinket, into
the other a whip ; the newly wedded wife took off the
boots, and to remove first that which contained the
trinket was considered the omen of a happy life for the
woman. " But if she light on the boot with a whip in
it, she is reckoned among the unfortunate and gets a
bride-lash for her pains, which is but the earnest penny
of her future entertainment." There were also other
little passes during the complex ceremony, the winning
of any indicating the mastery during wedded life.

Such was the woman's lot in the seventeenth century,
but much was done to better it before Peter the Great
introduced western freedom. Collins wrote in 1674 :

"The Russian discipline to their wives is very rigid and
severe, more inhuman in times past than at present. Yet
three years ago a Moscow merchant beat his wife as long as he
was able, with a whip two inches round, and then caused her
to put on a smock dript in brandy, to which he set fire, and

232

Customs and Quaint Survivals

so the poor creature perished miserably in flames. Yet none
prosecuted her death, for there is no law against killing a
woman, or slave, if it happens on correction. Some of these
beasts will tie up their wives by the hair of the head and whip
them stark naked. Now parents make better matches for their
daughters, obliging husbands to contract to use them kindly,
without whipping, striking or kicking them."

Even Peter's code was cruel : it was during his
reign that Le Bruyn saw a woman executed in Moscow
by being buried alive ; covered up to her neck in the
dank black soil she lived but two days, whereas, on the
same authority, there were others who lingered ten or
more. In Russia, as in countries further west, the
crime of petty treason, the murder of a husband, was
considered almost as heinous as high treason, and
punished accordingly.

Kept closely confined to a small apartment, living
almost always in heated rooms the Russian ladies had
fair complexions ; " white cream-and-snow tinged with
the faint hue of the inside of a camellia " one poet
describes it. Others are not so generous ; Turberville
writes :

" To buy her painted colours, doth allowe his wife a fee
Wherewith she deckes herselfe, and dyes her tawny skin ;
She prankes and paints her smoakie face,
Browe, lippe, cheeke and chinne."

All writers complain that the women painted with-
out art ; many blacked their teeth, and stained their
nails with henna, a custom which obtained with the
wives of Russian merchants to the present century.
So, too, after Peter the Great forced women from the
seclusion of the terem, it was the custom of ladies to
present to each other in public their paint boxes, even
as in the west men offered snufF. It was not until
after the French invasion that this custom died out,
and Pushkin endeavoured to advance the new order

233

by deriding the practice and ridiculing the English
governors who followed it. On the other hand, a lady
of the court who, much to the chagrin of others,
refused to paint her face, was compelled to do so by
order of the Tsar, to whom complaint had been made.

As women were free in the Russia of the Norsemen,
the seclusion in the terem was either a custom adopted
from Byzantium or, more probably, a precautionary
measure to protect them from Tartar invaders. The
purpose of these invasions has already been stated, and
as on one foray the Tartars are reported to have taken
away 400,000 captives from Russia, the hiding ot
women and children in portions of the dwellings to
which men at no time had access was doubtless con-
sidered to enhance their chances of escape during the
temporary absence of the master in the front of the
battle ; and from being a temporary retreat it became
the ordinary living apartments. But the custom was a
town one ; not practised by villagers.

The Russians were largely flesh eaters, meat and
fish constituted the diet not only of the well to do but
of the peasants. In the north Le Bruyn found the
natives feeding even their beasts on fish, and Ysbrant
noted the same practice among the inhabitants east of
the Ural. Jenkinson found that the Muscovites had
" many sortes of meates, and delight in eating gross
meates and stinking fish." Brandy was served round
before eating commenced, a custom that still obtains and
was originally derived from the Norsemen. Collins
states that horse-flesh was forbidden ; also hare, rabbit,
and elk. At some seasons veal was forbidden ; any
thing sweetened with sugar, or candy, on fast days ;
and, at all times, dishes flavoured with musk, civet
and beaver. The chief dish at a banquet given to
Herberstein was of swan, served with sour milk,
pickled gherkins and plums. There was abundance

234

Ancient Customs and Quaint Survivals

of corn, and some of the commoner vegetables ; the
fruits were insipid ; except filberts, Herberstein found
none of the sweeter kinds of fruit or nuts. Water
melons were grown and then, as now, the Russians fed
upon many different kinds of fungus ; some thirteen
varieties found in the neighbourhood of Moscow are
edible, but the Russian regards as scarcely wholesome
the only mushroom eaten in England.

Tea was known to the Russians of the middle ages ;
some quaint samovars are preserved in the Dom
Romanof, but the medieval Russ found his greatest
pleasure in drinking mead, brandy and strong liquors.
Before drinking it was the custom to blow in the cup ; to
guests and strangers wine was offered by, or on behalf
of, each member of the host's family, in small cups or
glasses, then, to conclude, a huge cup filled to the brim
from which it was the correct etiquette to take but a sip.

In Sylvester's " Domostroi " the correct etiquette
for masters and servants is set forth. At table the
diner may " blow his nose, must spit without noise,
take care to turn away from the company, and put his
foot over the place." Instead of advising the lord to
sell old slaves and cattle, as Cato told the Romans to
do, Sylvester requires that old servants who are no
longer good for anything must be " fed and clothed,
in consideration of their former services." Then, for
the servant ; " when a man sends his servant to honest
people, he should on arriving knock softly at the door
of the grand entrance ; when the slave comes to ask
what he wants, he must reply * I have nought to do
with thee, but with him to whom I am sent.' He
must say only from whom he comes, so that the man
may tell his master. On the threshold of the chamber
he will wipe his feet on the straw. Before entering he
will blow his nose, spit and say a prayer. If no one calls
jlmen ! to him, he will say another prayer ; if there

235

The Story of Moscow

is still no answer, a third prayer in a louder voice. If
still no answer, he may then knock at the door. On
entering he must bow before the sacred ikon ; then he
will explain his errand : he must not touch his nose, or
spit, or cough ; look neither to right nor left."

The Tsars derived much revenue from a cursemay
or drinking tavern in each town, which was let out to
tenants or bestowed upon some courtier for a year or
two, " then, he being grown rich, is taken by the Tsar
and sent to the warres again, where he shall spend all
that which he hath gotten by ill means, so that the
Tsar in his warres is little charged, but all the burden
lieth on the poor people."

Jenkinson writes : " At my being there, I heard of
men and women that drunk away their children and all
their goods at the Tsar's tavern, and not being able to
pay, having pawned himself, the taverner bringeth him
out to the highway, and beates him upon the legs ;
then they that pass by, knowing the cause and perad-
venture, having compassion upon him, giveth the money,
so he is ransomed."

During carnival there were many deaths due to ex-
cessive drinking and the extreme cold, for it was then
that all had licence to drink and make merry. The
Tsar Vasili Ivanievich (1505-1533) gave permission
to some of his courtiers to drink at any time, but in
order that their habits might not corrupt the people
they had to live apart in a special suburb, which was
appointed them on the south side of the river, where
for a time all the dwellers were known by the name
of Nali or "Drinkers."

" Folke fit to be of Bacchus train, so quaffing is their kinde,

Drinke is their sole desire, the pot is all their pride ;

The sob'rest head doth once a day stand needful of a guide,

And if he goe into his neighbour as a guest,

He cares for little meat, if so his drinke be of the best."

TUKHEKVILI.E, 1568.
236

Ancient Customs and Quaint Survivals

The Muscovites knew not how to dance. At their
merrymakings they made Tartars and Poles dance
to amuse them ; their music was obtained from brass
hunting horns, trumpets, cymbals and the bagpipes.
Kotoshin states that the boyards were "dull, ignorant
men, who sit in silence, stroking their beards and making
no reply to anything said to them." The common
people amused themselves on the " sway " or sea-saw ;
they loved to assemble in crowds and to sing and drink
together. Some were drawn up and down in chairs,
others went round and round in flying-chairs affixed to
wheels pivoted, some perpendicularly, others horizon-
tally ; in short, the prototypes of the " merry-go-rounds "
and " high-flyers " of pleasure fairs in Britain and else-
where. In winter they sped down ice hills on their
small sledges (tobogganing), and few only took pleasure
in field sports, trapping birds and animals being part of
the business of the lives of most ; coursing and falconry
the privilege of the Tsar and his suite.

In winter when the boyard stirred out of doors it
was always in his sledge, where he lay upon a carpet
in the skin of a polar bear. The sledge was drawn by
a single horse " well decked," a little boy astride its
back, and servants of the boyard stood upon the tail of
the sledge.

As traders they had an unenviable reputation. " The
people of Moscow are more cunning and deceitful than
all others, their honour being especially slack in busi-
ness contracts of which fact they themselves are by
no means ignorant for, whenever they traffic with
foreigners, they pretend, in order to attain greater
credit, that they are not men of Moscow but strangers."
The market was in the Kitai Gorod. There the foreign
merchants had their warehouses, and for centuries a
Gostinnoi Dvor, not unlike the bazaar of Stamboul,
occupied the site of the recently erected New Rows

2 37

The Story of Moscow

(Novi Riadi), but even at the present day the picturesque
is not extirpated from the wholesale market. The
Starai Gostinnoi Dvor has quite a charm of its own,
and the adventurous sightseer
who, not content with passing
through it from the Ilyinka,
turns off into the alleys furthest
from the Krasnce Ploshchad
towards the wall of the Kitai-
gorod, will see curious
courtyards having
large galleries around
them ; huge hatch-
ways communicating
with the vast vaults
and stores below.
Quaint shops line the wall
>-- of the Kitai-gorod from
the Varvarka gate right up
to the Nikolskaya ; with a
sort of permanent rag fair
at that end, where, too,
from the introduction of
printing, the stalls and shops of the booksellers have
been located. Another surviving market for miscel-
laneous articles from old ikons and bludgeons to
picked up trinkets and immense samovars is held
from six o'clock till noon on Sunday mornings around
the Sukharev Bashnia. From time immemorial a great
fair for frozen fish and game has been held outside the
Kitai-gorod wall as soon as winter's frost sets in. In
this commercial district are various old churches of in-
terest and, in the Cherkassky pereulok, the place of
legal combat for those who justified their cause by an
appeal to strength and skill.

In the administration of justice much was lacking,

238

WALL OF THE KITAI-GOROD.
VARVARKA VOROT

Ancient Customs and Quaint Survivals

the principle of the paternal rule of the sovereign
necessitating direct appeal by means of a petition.
Later, a Prikase or office of direction was established,
and this was followed by others empowered with the
control of affairs relating respectively to carmen,
Siberia, criminals, etc. As in all countries, misde-
meanours against the property or liberties of indi-
viduals was regarded as a matter for personal redress
by the party aggrieved ; only those against the crown
called for the active interference of the sovereign through
his body-guard. The use of torture and some western
methods of judicial procedure were introduced by
Sophia Palealogus and the Italians who followed her,
and were grafted upon native customs.

In the reign of Ivan the Terrible, legal procedure
was as follows :

" When any dispute arises they appoint, in the first place,
the land owners to act as judges, and these if unable to settle the
dispute, refer the case to a higher magistrate. The com-
plainant asks the magistrate for leave to summon his adversary
to court; the leave granted, he calls an attendant (sergeant),
cites the accused and hurries him along to the court. The at-
tendant keeps scourging the man about the shins with the
knout, until he can bring forward someone who on his behalf
can satisfy the law. If he has no friend to go bail for him,
the sergeant, grasping him by the neck, drags him along and
subjects him to blows, until before the court to plead his cause.
If it be a suit to recover a debt, the defendant is asked by the
magistrate whether he is in debt to the plaintiff, and replies that
he is not in his debt. Then the judge asks, ' In what form can
you make denial! ' The defendant answers, 'Upon my oath.'
Thereupon the sergeant is forbidden by the magistrate to ad-
minister further blows, until the evidence makes the case clearer.

" The Muscovites are exempt from a great curse to a com-
munity, in that they have no pettifogging lawyers. Every
man conducts his own case, and the plaint of the pursuer
and defence ot the accused are submitted to the prince in
the form of written petitions, craving for a just sentence at
his hands. When each party has supported his case with all
the arguments available, the judge asks the accuser whether

239

The Story of Moscow

any arguments remain. He answers that he himself, or his
champion for him, will, with a strong hand, make good his
accusation on the person of his opponent, and he further
demands leave to engage with him in single combat. Liberty
to fight is accorded both disputants, who rush simultaneously
to the onset. But if one or both be not strong enough to
fight, they engage professional pugilists as substitutes. These
men enter the lists arme<I, chiefly with a war-club and a hunt-
ing-pole. The fighting is on foot. He whose champion is
beaten is cast at once in prison, where he is most shamefully
treated, until he ends his dispute with his enemy. If of high
rank it is not allowed to get proxies. If a poor man has
incurred a debt, and is unable to pay, the creditor carries him
off and makes him labour for him, yea he even lets out his
services on hire to someone else, until by his labour he fills up
the amount of his debt."

Harry Best, an Englishman, made good his claim
against a defaulter in a trial by combat, which resulted
in an immediate petition by the Muscovites to the Tsar,
to forbid foreigners engaging in the lists with citizens.
As for criminals : thieves were imprisoned and knouted
but were not hanged for a first offence ; for a second
offence, a thief lost the nose or an ear and was branded
on the forehead ; the third offence was punished with
crucifixion, which was a customary penalty long after
the days of Ivan IV. Impalement in various ways
was also practised ; heretics were burned ; false-coiners
boiled in oil ; during winter the condemned were thrust
under the ice and drowned. The long category of
barbarous punishments borrowed from the west, being
minutely followed in addition to excisions, amputations,
mutilations and cruelties of local origin. One of these
may be mentioned, "the death by 10,000 pieces,"
when the condemned was cut away bit by bit and the
parts seared to prevent death by haemorrhage before it
was necessary to attack a vital part. Another form of
it was to insert a hook under a rib and pull the bone
out of the side the Muscovite equivalent of the
240

Ancient Customs and Quaint Survivals

western method of extorting money from Jews by the
extraction of tooth after tooth. Ivan " Groznoi "
practised even worse cruelties. The widow of one of
his victims he put astride a coarse rope and drew her to
and fro upon it until sawn through in this rivalling
the excesses of enthusiastic religious persecutors in the
Netherlands. More refined was his fiendish practice
of hanging in the doorway of a boyard's house his
wife, child, or some other loved one of the boyard, then
compel the man to go to and fro past the corpse that
day by dj;y became more repulsive. Worse even than
this did Ivan " Groznoi," the cruel Tsar, but his worst
need not be mentioned unless, at some future time, men
name him not the " Terrible," but call him the
Great."

In the days of Peter the Great men were still im-
paled or crucified ; were burned in small pens filled
with straw ; were beheaded on a block and " hanged
as elsewhere." Le Bruyn says, one day he saw a
man burned alive, and in another part of the town a
woman buried, with small tapers burning near her ;
and " all executions with such silence, that what takes
place at one end of the town is unknown at the other."
Afterwards, were such barbarities as the Empress
Elizabeth ordered to be inflicted upon the Boyarina
Lapunof, and still later such cruelties as the Countess
Soltikov exercised on her serfs. In fact the tale of
Moscow's woe was not told until the advent to the
throne of that greatest of dead Tsars, Alexander II.,
the true reformer of Russia.

In the olden days the bearers of too illustrious names
were forbidden to marry ; others might not marry
without permission first obtained ; leave was necessary
before one could carry arms. In times of peace it was
unusual for weapons to be worn, a staff shod with steel
took the place of sword or dagger, the voievodes only

Q 241

The Story of Moscow

wore side arms generally. Trade was the privilege of
the Tsar, and those to whom he granted the right ;
pen work was always done by humble secretaries or diaks
in the end they became the masters, rather than the
servants of their employers.

In their bearing towards their superiors, ecclesiastic
and secular, the Russian was abject in his deference ;
the customary mode of address being similar to that of
the east. In Byzantium the petitioner prostrated himself
and called, " May I speak and yet live ? " In Moscow
the Russ cried, " Bid me not to be chastised, bid me
speak, I the humble, etc.," and in Russian a petition,
literally, is a "beating of the forehead" before superi-
ority. Peter the Great did much to discourage the
abject prostration of his subjects before the property of
the crown, but as late as the reign of the Emperor
Nicholas some serfs were compelled to uncover when
passing any mansion of their lord, whilst other nobles
expressly forbade it. The Church never expressly
forbade prostration before sacred objects as Peter did
before secular property, so in that, the old custom
survives. But it is probably owing to the earlier use,
and not particularly to the image of our Saviour over
the Spasski Gate, that it is customary still to uncover
when passing to or from the Kremlin by the state
entrance. For in Russia when a practice has been
once enjoined by a person in authority it will be con-
tinued until expressly forbidden. It is said that many
years ago a distinguished visitor to one of the royal
residences inquired why it was thought necessary to
station a sentry in the centre of a grassplot in the
pleasure grounds. It was then discovered that once
upon a time, a Tsaritsa, long deceased, had noticed an
early snow-drop budding forth at that spot, and ex-
pressed her wish that the flower should be protected.
To ensure its safety a sentry mounted guard, and so
242

Ancient Customs and Quaint Survivals

for many years, day and night, in all seasons, a sentry
continued to be posted there ; for, although the circum-
stances had been forgotten, the order was conscientiously
obeyed.

The rites of the orthodox church are not subject to
change, and the ceremonies of to-day are practically the
same as they were centuries ago. One of the most
characteristic is connected with the periodical removal
of some sacred picture from its ikonostas to a special
service in a church dedicated to some other saint, or
associated with a particular episode in the life of our
Saviour. After a preliminary service, the ikon is taken
down and reverently borne away by the priests appointed,
attended by prelates, deacons, acolytes, choristers and
the bearers of "standards." These standards znamia,
literally " token " are akin to the banners of the
western Church ; they are of diverse form, usually of
metal, adorned with gems, and always have either a
representation of a saint or some sacred symbol upon
them. Some are but a fit setting to a small ikon ; many
are beautiful specimens of metal work, others are of
curious design, all are attractive ; and when, sometimes
to the number of a' hundred or more, they are carried
aloft through the streets of the old town, they add
greatly to the stateliness of an impressive pageant.

It is on such occasions as these and they are many
that the attitude of the people towards their church
may be studied with advantage, and the beholder will
realise how strong is the affection of the orthodox for
all that pertains to their religion. The great reverence
shown the symbols, the fervour and sincerity of the
greeting, are convincing evidence of deeply-rooted
belief, simple piety and existing close relations between
the Church and people. In short, a procession of this
kind does more than suggest the religious phase of
medievalism, it is a revelation of its actual potency.

243

7 'be Story of Moscow

Easter is of course the great festival ; then the Great
Bell of Moscow thunders forth that Christ has risen,
and the people embrace each other and with pious glee
call " Vosskresenni Khristos" much as in the west
acquaintance greet each other with good wishes at the
new year. Students of comparative ecclesiasticism
cannot afford to miss witnessing the celebration of the
feast in Moscow any more than they can that in Rome.

On Trinity Sunday not only are the churches strewn
with newly cut herbage and decorated with budding
branches, but all houses " sport greenery " it is a
combination of the old time customs of May-Day and
Yuletide in the west. The sacred ikons figure in all
ceremonies, and private individuals in times of distress
requisition them. They are conveyed with consider-
able pomp to the bedside of the dying, or to the homes
of the fortunate, pious in their rejoicing. The church
is all inclusive and makes no distinction ; is as ready to
comfort the most notorious sinner as it is the devout
communicant of irreproachable rectitude and honour.

The ikon most desired is that known as the Iberian
Mother of God, whose chapel stands before the
Vosskresenski Gate. Close by a carriage and six
remains in attendance, and usually towards evening it
starts forth on long journeys across the town, its
round often unfinished when morning dawns. Its
place on the ikonostas is filled by a copy, but the
original is at once restored on its return. Men un-
cover as the carriage passes by ; those near, when it
is carried to or from a house, prostrate themselves or
attempt to kiss it, some endeavour so to arrange that
the picture must be carried over them. Another ikon
in request is that kept at the Vladimirski Vorot ; all
have great homage paid them. Priests, drivers, at-
tendants, are uncovered, even in the depth of winter;
and to be appointed to any post in connection with it
244

Ancient Customs and Quaint Survivals

/

is counted a great honour. It is said that the offerings
of the thankful in return for the privileges conferred by
"visiting" have amounted to as much as ; 10,000 in
a single year in respect of one picture
alone. This money is part of the church
revenue the servants attending with the
ikon receivir.:; presents in addition.

Originally the private ikon was a
picture of the patron saint of its
owner. As every day in the year is
a saint's day, the saint of the day on
which a person happened to be born
was considered his patron ; often he
took that saint's name, if some
other were chosen then the re-
cipient must be christened on
the day assigned to that saint,
and thus the " name " day is
distinct from the birthday and is
observed, whilst the anniversary of
one's birth may or may not be
celebrated. Often, indeed usually,
an ikon of the Virgin now occupies
the "sacred corner." It is so
placed that it must be visible on A CHASTOK

entering the room and receive the
obeisance of the orthodox ; it is also, as it were,
to be a witness of all that takes place before it.
To do anything wrong in the presence of an ikon
makes the fault the greater ; persistent evil-doers screen
the ikon before wilfully transgressing. It was even
made one of the charges in the indictment of the false
Tsar Dmitri that he neglected to veil the ikon the day
of his marriage. To western minds such an attitude
is as incomprehensible as the action related in one of
Tolstoi's stories, of the pious peasants who, about to

245

murder their offspring, knelt reverently by the hole they
had made in the ice and prayed to God that He would
protect and bless them. But the Russian understands.

The private ikon, or some other sacred picture,
always precedes the corpse at the funerals of the
orthodox. The obsequies of the wealthy are still
conducted with great pomp ; the modern practice of
hiding the coffin beneath wreaths and crosses being
combined with the more austere solemnities of a
statelier age. The church of St Sophia, on the south
side of the Moskva, opposite the Kremlin, is much
used in connection with military funerals and those of
a public character. The peasant's coffin is simply
covered with a pall, and the bier carried through
the streets shoulder-high, with no other pomp than
the ikon reverently borne some paces ahead of the
cortege. The hands of the dead one are closed
over a paper on which is printed a prayer for the
repose of his soul, the deceased's baptismal name being
written in, and this is the only justification for the
assertions of the early writers that "the Russ when
he dies hath his passport to Saint Nicholas buried
with him."

If it is the practice to decorate the ikon with pre-
sented jewels, it was not only counted a sin but a
crime to take any back again. Collins says that
the punishment for so doing was the loss of a hand,
as befell a woman " who thought she had but lent
to the image " she favoured. With the private
ikon " they do as they will, decorating the ikon one
day and with the same tawdry themselves the next,"
an indication that the ignorant peasant may treat his
ikon much as the West African negroes treat their
fetiches.

A common object in Moscow of to-day is the watch-
tower or chastok, where night and day sentinels patrol
246

Ancient Customs and Quaint Survivals

on the look out for fires, not nowadays so frequent or
so disastrous as formerly, since the erection of wooden
houses within the town limits has been forbidden. In
summer, when the signal is run up on the staff, numerous
one horse drays, each with a small barrel of water, hurry
to the scene and in somewhat primitive fashion attempt
to quench the conflagration. If a wooden house the
fire usually subsides when the roof with its thick layer
of earth between rafters and plates collapses. Dearly
paid for experience has taught the Muscovite how the
spread of fires may best be stopped where water
is scarce and hydrants far distant. Primitive and
mediaeval in many things, Moscow reveals how the
people of long past ages overcame the difficulties in-
cidental to life in large cities, and a great fire will
bring together such an array of water carts as will
convince the beholder of the very thorough organisa-
tion of a department charged with the duty of safe-
guarding public safety.

Even the vehicles exhibit a survival from medievalism
since each horse is harnessed beneath a duga or piece of
bent wood intended to strengthen the shafts, as it is by
them alone the load is hauled, and traces are unknown.
The duga, just as it is to-day, was used with the first
wheeled vehicles introduced to Russia and will persist
for aye. But the observant stranger will not lack enter-
tainment in Moscow, especially if he shows generous
toleration of primitive customs. If a house be building,
the simple and superstitious working man, his original
intention being now directed by the church to a mani-
festation of piety, will first raise above all the scaffolding
a well made, often decorated, cross, so seeking a
blessing from the good by the same sign that his early
ancestors sought to appease the powers of evil. The
carter, whose horse drops with heat sickness, will get
the animal on his legs again and cause him three times

H7

The Story of Moscow

to cross the duga he purposely places thwartwise. To
those versed in symbols an act as easy to understand as
the every day remedy of the kitchenmaid who puts the
poker across the bars of the grate to prevent the newly
lighted fire from being extinguished a not commend-
able practice yet effective epithem. Sprite ridden the
Moscow peasant is still, but though " it " moves him
to do many things of which he knows not the reason,
merely obeying the prompting intuitively, he has forgotten
what this " it " is that must be appeased. A bridge, a
girder cantilever across a wide estuary or a couple of
planks across a ditch, is not finished till some trifle has
been cast into the water, in this the mujik being not
unlike the skipper of a Grimsby trawler who tosses a
new coin into the ocean before lowering his net.

The enthusiast may attempt to trace the direct con-
nection between baksheesh, nachai, and the extortion of
gratuities generally, with the ancient practice of trifling
sacrifices to some mythical demon ; both old as the offer
of a cock by Socrates to ./Esculapius, and world-wide as
the application of a door-key to the spine as a cure for
nasal haemorrhage. In such matters may hap Moscow
is as other towns, and neither mediaeval nor peculiar.

But whosoever of a summer's night will wander into
the suburbs will hear the policeman on his round beating
two pieces of wood together with aggravating rhythm.
If the listener be country-bred the noise will remind
him of the farm boy of old days who, with wooden
clapper, scared birds from the corn. If he be so
curious as to examine the instrument he will find it
to be a piece of board with a handle, and a wooden
ball attached to it with a piece of twine. The knock-
ing of the two together to produce an intermittent whirr
is accomplished by a curious turn of the wrist. The
watchman will explain that the noise is to warn garden-
robbers and other depredators of his coming, or to advise
248

Ancient Customs and Quaint Survivals

his employers that he is about his duty. The most
learned ethnologist of the west says that an identical
instrument, handled in the same manner, is employed
by the minor priests of a wild race in the far far east
to drive away evil spirits from the native temple.

Further a-field a twenty-five kopeck ride on a
lineika from the Trubaya Ostankina is reached.
There is a curious and elegant church of red brick
built by Moscow artisans in the golden age, at the
cost of the boyard Mikhail Cherkassky. Near by is
a great wooden palace, stuccoed and prim, the property
of the Sheremetievs. Passing through its park where
Le Bruyn shot his great crane flying by a single bullet
from his musket, and where the upper reaches of the
Yauza are still haunted by wild fowl, is a thick wood
to the north of the stream, and in the middle of that
near the path, a clearing where at midday a drove of
mares are coralled and milked by men who speak a
strange tongue, and are of quite different appearance
to the Muscovites. A mile further on is their village,
near a large pool. It is a poor, insignificant, rather
dirty and very untidy place. Mordva its name ;
Mordva its people, whose ancestors, many centuries ago,
left their home among the Altai Mountains on the
confines of Manchuria and spread westward over Russia,
fighting with their later conquerors almost to their own
extermination. Various isolated groups of this once
powerful race are scattered about Russia, mixing but
little with its people. These, who through long
centuries have been resident in the heart of Muscovy,
seems as incongruous and impossible as would be the
present occupation of Hampstead Heath by survivors
of ancient Picts in the full glory of their primitive
customs. It is nearest to the great towns that primitive
methods and beliefs persist most strongly, and just as
in the villages about London, antiquated farming im-

249

The Story of Moscow

plements and old country superstitions are more plentiful
than in the rural districts of England, so near Moscow
the old customs and manners die hard. In villages
within easy walk of the Kremlin, mediaeval practices

PETROVSK1 MONASTVR

are rife, especially during the celebration of marriages,
and the performance of minor domestic pageants.
The curious, if persistent and lucky, may see the
bowl of Tantalus presented to the mother of the bride
of yesterday, and as the liquor escapes the cup by
the hole in its bottom from which the profferer has
removed his finger, guess at the significance of the
custom and speculate as to its origin.
250

Ancient Customs and Quaint Survivals

Within the town almost every old building has its
legends. Very diverse are those connected with the
Lobnoe Mesto on the Grand Square. It derived its
name literally " the place of a skull " from the
Golgotha that was erected there for the Easter Passion
play which was performed yearly before the church of
the Trinity disappeared. From time immemorial it
has been the place of public assembly, being to Moscow
what St Paul's Cross was to old London, and the
perron to Liege. Therefore, as all who have studied
the migration of symbols will know, not only is it of
very early origin, but associated with stories in some
form common to all peoples.

Another almost universal superstition is in Moscow
attached to the Sukharev Bashnia, which is supposed
to be the feminine complement of the Ivan Veliki
tower in the Kremlin. The people call the Sukharev
the jena (wife) of Ivan, and, according to tradition,
Jack and Jenny get nearer to each other every year.

Visitors for whom folk-lore has no attraction will
look for the picturesque in Moscow. The most
characteristic view, the prospect the tourist expects, is
that seen by turning westward along the boulevard
from the Lubianka, and keeping along the south foot-
path, near the wall, watch the old town appear little
by little as the brow of the hill is reached. Houses
of all sorts and colours a facade like that of a
classic temple, domes blue, green and golden, the red
tower of a Chastok, a medley of roofs and walls, all
these will appear framed in the foliage of the trees on
the boulevards, and those overhanging the walls of the
Rojdestvenka Convent, until the valley of the Neglinnaia
is right below and the crosses and domes of the Petrovski
Monastery are disclosed to view. Then it is time to
cross the road to the centre of the boulevard and see
Moscow unfold itself walls and towers changing like

251

The Story of Moscow

the coloured fragments in a kaleidoscope. Opposite,
where the bank rises to the Strastnoi Monastery,
was once the old village of Vissotski older, it is
said, than Moscow town, or Kremlin, or even the
hall of Kuchkovo and the twelfth century hamlet on
the Chisty Prud at the back.

Again, ascend the belfry of St.Nikita in the Gon-
charevskaya ; time the very early morning, and see
the rising sun glitter on the domes of the Kremlin,
and the churches of the Bielo Gorod ; or, when it
has long passed the meridian, watch the afterglow
reflected from the thousand domes, tinting the white
walls from the balcony of Krinkin's on the Hill of
Salutation. Stay on and watch the great white town,
silent, reposeful and glorious, fade into the haze of
the " white-night " ; see it shimmering in the moon-
light, or the glare of midday sun ; sparkling feebly
in the blue star light, or glowing like a new-cast
ingot in the blackness of winter's midnight ; see it
how, when and where you may, solve the enigma of
its vitality if you can but neither doubt its strength,
nor question its beauty.

HcnOJHHCKOK) pVKOK)

Tbi, Kara xapiia

H HajT> M3JOK) piKOEO
nriin;i, H

252

CHAPTER XII
The Convents and Monasteries

"These are the haunts of meditation, these
The scenes where ancient bards th' inspiring breath
Esctatic felt ; and from the world retired,
Conversed with angels and immortal forms,
On gracious errands bent." THOMSON.

D USSIAN monks all belong to one order, that based
*V on the rule of St Basil the Great, practically the
only order of " black " clergy recognised by the Eastern
Church. The first monastery in Russia was founded
by St Anthony, a Russian who, after living some time
on Mount Athos, returned to Kiev, and there, in 1055,
conjunctly with St Theodosius, established the Pecherski
Monastery, on the same ride as that of the Studemi
one of the strictest of the clerical institutions in Con-
stantinople. The Pecherski still ranks highest among
the monasteries of Russia. The one of greatest im-
portance in Moscow, though not the most ancient, is
that of -the Miracles (Chudov) founded in the fourteenth
century by St Alexis, the Metropolitan. It stands
within the Kremlin, between the two Imperial palaces,
on a spot which long ago was a part of the enclosure
around the dwelling of the Tartar bashkak,or "resident."
At the time when one Chani-Bek was khan, his wife,
Taidula, fell ill and was healed by Alexis, to whom
out of gratitude she presented her gold signet ring with
its effigy of the Great Dragon, and a site for the

2 S3

The Story of Moscow

Monastery of the Miracles. The first building was
erected in 1365, and the monastery long served as the
residence of the primates of Moscow ; it has been many
times destroyed and rebuilt ; the present building dates
from the reign of the first Romanof, and, at the time
of writing, is in course of extensive alteration. Passing
before the Church, with the curious paper ikon outside,
a large gateway will be found in the angle where the
Chudov buildings abut against those of the smaller
Imperial palace ; passing through this, the visitor will
find himself in a large Courtyard ; the Church of St
Michael is on the right, a small railed-in cemetery among
the trees on the left. The Monastery, a mean, dilapi-
dated, straggling two-storeyed building, extends almost
completely around the quadrangle ; the chief rooms, on
the bel-etage, communicate with a long outside covered
gallery, closely resembling the yard of an old London
inn, which is reached by the perron in the western
corner. The Church of St Michael, the Archistratigus,
was built conjointly with the Monastery in 1365, rebuilt
in i 504, and later restored in its primitive style, so has
preserved even more than any other church in Moscow
the original character of Muscovite ecclesiastic archi-
tecture. The interior is well worth seeing, but access
is not easy ; the best time is after early matins, which
are celebrated about thrice weekly at 7 A.M.

The frescoes are very primitive, and for Moscow,
original. The old-fashioned low ikonostas is of a type
common to " wooden Russia " ; the ancient ikons call
only for the attention of the student, but on the High
Altar is a tabernacle in the form of a church with
twelve domes which has wider interest. It is the work
of Remizov in the reign of Mikhail Theodorovich.
Within the courtyard, traces of Tartar graves have been
found ; and the cemetery contains the tombs of Edeger
the last "Tsar " of Kazan, r 565 and of many Mos-
254

The Convents and Monasteries

cow families, as the Trubetskis, Kovanskis, Sherbatovs,
etc. The state rooms are still used by the head of the
Church in Moscow ; they look out towards Ivan Veliki,
immediately above the little window at which the Holy
Bread is sold. Although the monastery has been the
scene of many important events in connection with the
history of the Church and of Moscow it was here that
Maxim, the Greek, studied, and Latin was first taught,
1 506 there is nothing either in the refectory or com-
mon rooms connected with them, for the monastery was
erected during the plague riots of 1 77 1 and spoiled by the
French. The church of the Patriarch Alexis is entered
from the Tsar's Square through a portico, of a pseudo-
Gothic style, designed by Kasakov in the eighteenth
century, but the church itself was constructed in 1 686, and
the remains of St Alexis the Metropolitan then con-
veyed there in the presence of the Tsarevna Sophia and
the boy-Tsars Ivan V. and Peter I. It occupies the site
of an earlier church founded in 1483, and contains the
incorruptible remains of the Saint. Alexis, the wonder-
worker, was descended from a boyard family named
Pleskov. Born in 1292, he passed twenty-two years
of his life in Moscow, a student of the Bogo-yavlenski
Monastery ; after admission he was for twelve years
one of the household of the Archbishop, and later
became bishop of Vladimir, and Metropolitan of Kief.
His care of the two child princes of Moscow, his
direction of Dmitri Donskoi and sturdy championship
of Moscow, and his efforts to maintain its supremacy,
endeared him to the people. When he died in 1378,
at the age of eighty-five, he was buried within the
Chudov monastery he had founded ; there in 1439 his
remains were discovered undecayed, and miraculous
qualities attributed to them. In 1519, Balaam the
Metropolitan informed Vasili Ivanovich, then the
reigning Grand-Duke, that the blind in visiting the

The Story of Moscow

tomb of Alexis were restored to sight. Since that
date the memory of Alexis has been held in highest
reverence by the orthodox, and in the public esteem
he ranks with St Peter, first among the Patron Saints
of Moscow. Consequently the church is one of the
richest ; it was spoiled by the French, who cast the
silver shrine of the saint into the melting pot, and his
moshi were found under a heap of lumber after the
flight of Napoleon. Much of the decoration is new,
but in the style of the time of Alexis Mikhailovich, of
which the pavement is particularly characteristic. The
new shrine is of silver, so are the royal doors of the
sanctuary ; for them some 420 Ibs were needed, and
the tabernacle, the chandeliers and the elaborate
ikonostas are all of sterling metal, and there is a
magnificent archiepiscopal mitre presented by Prince
Potemkin. The original cofHn of the saint is preserved
in a glass case near the silver shrine, and by it are kept
the identical pastoral staff he used in Moscow, and other
personal relics. Among these are manuscript copies
of the New Testament executed by the saint, as also
his holograph will. The library has some hundreds
of old illuminated and other manuscript books, in-
cluding a psalter of the thirteenth century, and a
collection of old printed books of the seventeenth
century. This church, the adjoining chapel of the
Annunciation, and the monastery are all closely as-
sociated with the introduction of pedagogy to Moscow ;
it was here that the first scholastic seminary for priests
was founded, and later an academy was developed.
It became customary for parents to bring their children
hither before their entry to any school, in order that
the blessing of St Alexis might be asked, and some
peasants of the village at one time owned by the saint
make a pilgrimage to his shrine on his name day, and
pray for their " Lord." The sacristy has a valuable
256

The Convents and Monasteries

collection of old plate ; the crosses, panagies, mitres,
vases, goblets, etc., are remarkable for their beauty and
rich decoration, and second only to those of the
collection in the sacristy of the Patriarchs.

Naturally the Monastery of the Miracles is closely
associated with the more renowned of the wonder-
working ikons of Russia. The most celebrated now
existing there are : the trimorphic paper ikon of the
Holy Trinity, that of St Nicholas the wonder-worker,
and that of St Anastasia. In 1771, when Moscow
was decimated by the plague, it was believed that the
ikon of the Virgin (Bogoloobski) at the Varvarka
Vorot wrought miraculous cures. It was so thronged
by worshippers and the pestilent stricken that, as a
measure of precaution, the Archbishop Ambrose
ordered its immediate removal to the Chudov monastery,
but the maddened people gathered in the Kremlin and
threatened that they would not leave a stone of the
monastery standing unless the ikon was at once restored.
The Archbishop was forced to give way. The next
day he was dragged by the mob from the Donskoi
monastery where he was hiding and massacred by the
enraged populace. This was on the 1 7th September :
from that date the plague declined and the daily death-
rate of 700 returned to the normal average with the
advent of winter.

Flanking the eastern wall of the Chudov Monastery
are the buildings of the Convent of the Ascension
( Vossnesenski), the entrance to which is from the large
square of the Kremlin near the Redeemer Gate.
There are some indications that this nunnery is of
greater' antiquity than 1393, the date usually assigned
its foundation. Eudoxia, the wife of Dmitri Donskoi,
organised the institution, and, after taking the veil there,
ordered that it was to be her place of sepulture also.
The buildings were destroyed in 1483 ninety years

R 257

The Story of Moscow

after their erection again in 1547, 1571, 1612, 1701,
and last of all on the great fire of All Saints' Day,
1737. Its successive rebuildings are due to the great
veneration of the orthodox for the tombs of their
ancestors, and from 1407 its cemetery ranked first as
the place of sepulture for the consorts of the rulers of
Muscovy ; some thirty-five were interred within its
walls between 1407 and 1738.

" It is said that when Eudoxia retired to the convent in
1389, although she observed the appointed fasts rigorously and
within the walls wore heavy weights and performed arduous
penances, she still took great interest in the affairs of the outer
world, and when visiting dressed in rich robes befitting her
former state. This gave rise to much scandal, which she re-
futed by exhibiting to her accusers the effects of her sell-
imposed penances. When Tokhtamysh destroyed the building
in 1393 she not only devoted herself to the task of founding
a better community, but did so much work among the sick
and indigent that she more than retrieved her character, being
worshipped almost as a saint and canonised under her adopted
name of Euphrosina, revered through many generations."

The cells are mean, and the low plain facade not
unlike those of English alms-houses of the eighteenth
century. It was in this nunnery that Maria Mniszek
was housed prior to her marriage with the false Dmitri,
and here, too, that Maria Nagoi was forced to recognise
the same impostor as her own murdered son. The
Cathedral of the Ascension, like that of St Michael in
the Chudov, is of a primitive type, preserving many of
the characteristics of the original building erected by
the Tsar Vasili Ivanovich in 1518; the five domes
have not, however, the common bulbous cupolas, these
resemble inverted cups an original type. The interior
has the customary four pillars supporting the central
dome ; there is an ikonostas with four tiers reaching
to the arched roof. Of the sacred pictures the most
remarkable are that of the Virgin and that of the
258

The Convents and Monasteries

Ascension ; there is also a curious one in the north
chapel dedicated to Mary the Mother of the Afflicted.

The tombs of the Grand Duchesses are arranged
along the frescoed walls, north, west and south ; some
are of the white stone used in the earliest buildings in
Moscow, others of brick ; formerly the portraits of
those interred were painted on the walls over their
tombs, now many are covered with splendidly worked
palls of native design. The remains of Eudoxia
(St Euphrosina) are in a modern shrine of silver,
replacing that taken by the French ; on the right,
near the south wall, is the tomb of another Eudoxia
(Shtrchnev), the wife of Mikhail Theodorovich ; then
come the tombs of the Miloslavski and Naryshkin,
wives of his son the Tsar Alexis, and the last tomb of
all is that of another Eudoxia, the much tortured first
wife of Peter the Great. Four of the six, or more,
wives of Ivan the Terrible also lie here. In the sacristy
among many rich relics are two exquisitely decorated
copies of the gospels ; the enamel work and enrich-
ment with gems is the most characteristic of the
Russian art handicrafts. Not less excellent are the
two golden processional crucifixes presented by the
Tsar Michael. Such is the summer church of the
convent, to which there is a grand ceremonial procession
on Palm Sunday, and one on the second Sunday after
Trinity to commemorate the great fire of 1737.

The winter church, dedicated to St Michael, is the
chapel of Honour of St Theodore of Persia and was built
in the eighteenth century only. In addition to a much
venerated ikon of the virgin, painted in 1739, there
is preserved one of the greatest antiquities of Moscow
a bas relief representing St George the Conqueror
(Pobiedonostzev), the head uncovered, which originally
was one of the decorations of the Redeemer Gate near
by. It was transferred thence to the Church of St

259

The Story of Moscow

George, which was destroyed by the fire of 1737, a
conflagration that threatened the convent also, but was
stayed by the miraculous ikon of the Virgin of Kazan,
now placed in the adjoining new church of St Catherine
the Martyr. This is a modern building on the site
of a fine old church of the seventeenth century, and
of a Russified-Gothic style serves to show, from an
artistic point of view, how disastrous is the attempt to
combine native designs with those of the west. On
the ground floor of the western range of buildings are
the ovens, etc., where the Holy Bread is prepared,
and the nuns of the convent are celebrated throughout
Russia for the excellence of their work with the needle
and brush, their copies of the ikons of these churches
being in particular request.

The monasteries outside the Kremlin have much the
character of small fortified towns, and are the stronger
and, architecturally, the more interesting the greater the
distance at which they are situated from the town. To
visit them, drive out to the Simonov four miles from
the centre of the town and pass the Krutitski Vorot
and the Novo Spasski ; the Spasso-Andronievski and
the Pokrovski on the return. On the south side of
the river to the Danilovski and the Donskoi ; to the
west the Zachatievski and Novo Devichi. The others,
of minor interest are : Monasteries of St Nicholas,
Epiphany, Znamenski, Petrovski, Srietenka, and Alexis ;
Convents : St Nikita, Rojdestvenka, and Strastnoi.

SIMONOV MONASTERY

St Sergius founded the monastery in 1370, but it
was not moved to its present site on a hill commanding
the Moskva until twenty years later. It educated
St Jonah in the fifteenth century, and when he became
Metropolitan it increased in importance, but was later
260

The Convents and Monasteries

surpassed by the Troitsa, and although it owned 1 2,000
souls male serfs in the eighteenth century, it has
never attained the leading position, nor even that
expected of it. The present walls were built during
the reign of Theodore I. but, finished in 1591, they
could not keep out the Poles, who completely sacked
the monastery in 1612. It is a fine, strong looking,
dreamy old place, somewhat dilapidated and overgrown
with verdure. The wall is half a mile long, com-
manded by wonderful spire-like towers, some
1 30 feet high, crowned with two-storeyed
domed watch rooms, which
look like huge dovecots.
There is a covered rampart
walk all round, and from the
tower near the river, a sub-
terranean passage to the L izin
Prud, a holy well at one time
much visited by the sick who
had faith in its miraculous
healing properties. Some
six churches are within
its walls, one the Cathe-
dral of the Assumption,
a massive building, con-
secrated in 1405, and
having a somewhat bi-
zarre appearance, its
faade, in the Byzantine
style, being also painted in three colours to represent
quadrangular facets. It is a building quite foreign to
Muscovite style ; reminiscent rather of the old country
churches of Portugal. The ikon of greatest celebrity
is that of God the Father, richly decorated, and once,
it is said, blessed by St Sergius, when it was carried with
the troops of Dmitri against the Tartars under Mamai.

261

S1MONOV MONASTYR

'fbe Story of Moscow

A Moscow merchant defrayed the cost of the great
belfry, 330 feet high, and under the refectory is buried
the renowned Field-Marshall Bruce ; the sacristy is
rich in vestments and some ornamental work of the
Tsar Alexis's Masterskaya in the Kremlin. The
most famous inmate was Simeon Bekbulatov the con-
verted Tsar of Kazan, whom Ivan Groznoi made Tsar
of Moscow for twelve months ; his tomb will be shown.
The charm of the Simonov is derived from its stillness,
its out of the world air, its roominess, the matured trees,
the ample orchard, the long rampart walk, the excellent
views of Moscow, the many quaint nooks near the old
stores, the grateful shade of pleasant bosquets and the
orderly negligence that suggests contentment an ideal
home for dreamers, for cheery mysticism and the
inception of unhurried philosophies.

THE Novo SPASSKI

The new monastery of the Saviour, so called
because in the fifteenth century removed from the
Kremlin to its present site, is pleasantly situated near
the Moskva river not far from the Krasnoe Kholmski
bridge. Its walls were of wood until the invasion of
Devlet Ghiree, after which an attempt appears to have
been made to turn all the outlying monasteries into
fortresses for the better protection of Moscow. One
peculiarity of the Spasski Monastyr is that the towers
which flank the wall are all different, one is pentagonal,
one round, one hexagonal, and so others vary some
are squat, others have tapering spires from the towers ;
the belfry is 220 feet high. Its claim to greatness is
not due to the spirited defence it made to the Polish
attack, but to the fact that within its Cathedral of the
Transfiguration, one of the five churches within the
walls, is a picture " Neruko-tvorenni," not made with
262

The Convents and Monasteries

hands. "In the year 1645, in the town of Khlinov,
in the porch of the Church of the Trinity, before the
image of our Saviour not made with hands, Peter
Palkin, blind three years, stood and worshipped and
miraculously received his sight." The Tsar Alexis
ordered the picture to be brought to Moscow for the
Spasski Monastery, and a copy of it to be sent to
Khlinov, or Viatka. The church is also adorned with
a set of fresco portraits illustrating the genealogy of
the Tsars of Moscow, from Olga to Alexis : corre-
sponding therewith, the portraits of the Kings of Israel.
Behind the ikonostas are some extraordinary mural
paintings of the Tsars Michael and Alexis, founders
of the cathedral. The Church of the Protection, to
the south of the cathedral, was built in 1673 to the
memory of the Patriarch Philaret, and a third church,
near the cells of the monks, was built in 1652 by
Nicholas Cherkassky, to whose family Moscow owes
several fine churches. The monastery was the
favourite burying place of such noble Moscow families
as the Yaroslavskis, Gagarins, Sherbatevs, Naryshkins
and Romanofs, whose ancestors are mostly interred in
a crypt here, the last being Vasili Yurivich Zakharin.
The monastery of St Andronievski was founded by
St Alexis the metropolitan who made a vow, when in
a storm at sea during his voyage to Constantinople. The
relics of St Andronie are preserved in a silver shrine.
All these monasteries were pillaged and profaned by
the French, the Andronievski suffered perhaps more
than the others since there some monks were shot.

DONSKOI MONASTERY

This monastery is in no way connected with Dmitri Donskoi
but owes its name to a picture of the Virgin Mary, presented
by the Don Cossacks (Kazak = soldier) after the great victory
over Khazi-Ghiree and his army of 150,000 Mongols advancing
against Moscow in 1591 ; they were repulsed by the army

263

raised by Boris Godunov and the miraculous intervention of
the ikon of the Cossacks, and the grateful Theodore built the
monastery on the field of their defeat as a fit shrine for the
ikon, which had been set up as the standard of the defenders of
Moscow. A church pageant on August I9th (old style)
commemorates the victory. The white walls and red turrets
are copied from those of the Novo Devichi. The principal
church was founded in 1684 by Catherine, daughter of the
Tsar Alexis, and differs from those of Moscow town in being
of red brick. The smaller Church of the Virgin is the older,
founded in 1592.; the three others are of the eighteenth
century.

The Cossacks were the means of enriching the
church by recovering the silver looted by the French.
The decorations are for the most part quite modern,
and the paintings by an Italian. The cemetery has
fine monuments, and there the people resort on summer
evenings for the shade of the trees and restfulness of
this peaceful retreat. Further along the Kalujskaya is
the Alexandrina Palace, formerly the property of the
Orloffs, with its celebrated pleasaunce " sans sougi,"
extending to the wooded bank of the Moskva, with
pretty views of Moscow and one excellent one of the
Church of the Saviour seen alone at the extremity of
a fine avenue of great trees.

DANILOVSKI MONASTVR

This has the advantage of being the oldest establishment of
its kind in Moscow. Founded in the Kremlin by Daniel in
1272, it was transferred in 1330, and in the reign of Ivan IV.
rebuilt on its present site. The walls are less ornate than those
of the other fortifications of their time; the machecoules with
superposed loop-holes over the gun-ports are also unusual and
the polygonal corner towers have greater symmetry than those
of Simonov or Novo Spasski. The chief object of interest
within the building is the silver shrine of the founder placed
in the church by the Tsar Alexis in 1652. The other two
churches are commonplace, but in the cemetery is the tomb
of Gogol, one of the most original of Muscovite authors.

The Zamoskvoretski quarter, south of the river,
264

The Convents and Monasteries

was in mediasval times little better than a swamp and
long uninhabited. The Mongols settled there later,
and Tartar names indicate some streets, as Balchoog,
" quagmire," and Bolotnaia, " swamps ; " as late as the
reign of the Great Catherine, the Island where is now
the Babygorodskaia (little town) was open waste land,
and there the rebel impostor Pugatchev, brought to
Moscow in an iron cage, was beheaded in 1773. A
raised road Krimski-val, above the fen-land leads from
the Donskoi Monastyr to the Krimski Most, the tubular
bridge over the river near the Ostogenka. It obtained
its name from the fact that the Krim Tartars in their
attacks on Moscow always crossed the river at that
point, and it is still better known as Krimski Erode or
"ford."

Novo DEVICHI CONVENT

West of the Krimski Most, where the river makes
a wide sweep and on three side bounds a large tract
of low lying land, is the Maidens' Field, which tradition
asserts is the locality of the market at which the
Tartars in old times purchased Muscovite girls for
the Mohammedan harems in Constantinople and
Ispahan. Historians contend that the name is derived
from the convent established there since 1525. There
is no doubt that this was established in the early years of
the sixteenth century to commemorate the recapture of
Smolensk by Vasili III. It is also indisputable that
there were already convents existing within Moscow
and that Novo Devichi Monastyr means simply New
Monastery for Women. Helen, "the maid," was the
first abbess of this, and may have given it the name,
but it was customary in Moscow, before and since,
to name the convents after the dedication, as Conception,
Nativity, Passion, etc., so some earlier use of the popular
appellation " Maidens' Field " is more probable.

265

The Story of Moscow

The convent is two miles distant from the Kremlin, but
also on the river bank, though a tank serving as a moat
actually separates it from the present raised embankment of
the Moskva. The walls were built by the same Italians who
completed the walls of the Kremlin, and are of the same type,
but round and square towers alternate and both have some of the
heavy florid decoration so common in Moscow. The single
and double dropped-arch is most conspicuous, and the
quaintness of the architecture is accentuated by the glaring
disparity of the colouring dead white for the walls and
interior of the open turrets, dark Indian red for the tops of
the towers and masonry above the corbels of the machecoules.
The belfry is of five lofty stages en retraite surmounted with a
gilded bulbous dome and immense cross ; its colours are pink
and white with neutral facings ; yellow, green, rose-pink picked
out with white or darker tints are used for the other churches ;
that over the gateway being white with green roof, and both
green and blue are used lavishly elsewhere for the roofs of the
buildings within the enclosure, which together with the gold
on domes and crosses, gives to the convent-fortress a beauty
that is wholly eastern.

The two churches Vasili founded have been preserved and
others added. They are

Church of the Assumption, with a chapel dedicated to the
Holy Ghost.

Church of St Ambrose, of Milan.

Church of The Transfiguration of the Virgin.

Church of The Protection of the Virgin.

Chapel of SS. Balaam and Jehosaphat, beneath the belfry.

Church of St James the Apostle, founded in gratitude of the
preservation of the monastery on St James's day i8i.

The cathedral church with chapels to the Archangel
Michael ; to SS. Prokhor and Nikanor ; to St Sophia and the
sister graces, Vera, Nadejda, and Lubov (Faith, Hope and
Charity). Here the daughters of Alexis Mikhailovich are buried,
as also Eudoxia (Helena), first wife of Peter I. On the ikonostas
is a very early copy of the Iberian Mother of God, before that
ikon was taken to Smolensk in 1456.

Its history is unimportant. Julia the wife of its founder was
forced to take the veil here in 1563 when Vasili intended to
marry Helena Glinski ; Boris G'odunov and his sister Irene
lived within it during the six weeks following upon the death
of Theodore I. Notwithstanding its apparent strength,
during the times of trouble Vasili Shoviski after various
struggles to retain it, was forced to give it up to the invading

266

267

The Convents and Monasteries

Poles. Peter the Great imprisoned his sister Sophia within
its walls, and executed many of the streltsi before her windows
that their agony might awe her bold spirit. Some years after
he made it a foundling hospital, and 250 infants were housed
there before the Hospitalrie Dom was built ; it was abolished
in 1725. Napoleon visited it in 1812 and at first it suffered
little ; the King of Naples ordering divine service to be cele-
brated daily as usual, but later Davoust was billeted there, and
after the disaster the French before quitting it did their
utmost to blow up the belfry, the cathedral and stores. The
nuns at considerable risk interrupted the fired train and, by
their intrepidity and subsequent perseverance in combating
the fire, saved the convent from destruction.

Russian monasteries and convents are not rigorously closed
to the public like those of the Roman church. Generally from
sunrise to sunset the great gates stand open that all may enter
who desire to do so ; and the nuns, so far from being secluded
from the world, are rather encouraged to go out into it, both
on errands of charity and, at need, to supplement by their own
handicraft a too scanty income. For the most part the cells
are shared in common by three inmates who unite their daily
rations of tea, salt, and black-bread, and whilst the infirm
sisters busy themselves in copying ikons or producing lace,
needle-work and the like, the more active go into the town to
dispose of the produce. In convents as elsewhere the Russian
rule holds good that one's room is inviolate : strictly private
if the inmates wish, yet open to whomsoever it is their pleasure
to entertain.

269

CHAPTER XIII
Moscow of the English

" O, how glad was I that the Tsar took notice of those few
Englishmen." HORSEY.

XAOSCOW still bears witness to the thoroughness of
English handicraft just as it shows the unmistak-
able impress of the French heel. When the discovery
of the new world by Columbus had awakened England
to enterprise and adventure, among the expeditions fitted
out to find new markets for English manufactures was
one of three ships sent on the advice of Sebastian Cabot,
to the Arctic seas in i 553. Sir Hugh Willoughby was
in command ; Richard Chancellor, a young protege
of Sir Henry Sydney, his able lieutenant, and King
Edward VI. himself the patron. The merchant ven-
turers each found i 5 for the undertaking ; ^6000
in all was subscribed ; two Tartars in the King's stable
were interrogated as to that land on " the East of the
Globe," but they answered nothing at all that was in
point. Three ships sailed from Rudcliff Harbour on
the zoth May, but a few days later a storm separated
them. Chancellor sailed on, and notwithstanding " the
counsel of three friendly Scotchmen " to proceed no
further, he reached the White Sea where he awaited
the coming of his chief. Sighting a smack he got the
men on board ; they at once fell prostrate to kiss his
feet but he himself raised them, " an act of humanity
that won for him much goodwill." The natives dared
270

Moscow of the English

not trade without leave of their prince, and in some
six weeks an invitation was given Chancellor to proceed
from Kholmogori (Archangel) to Moscow. There
he was sumptuously entertained. Furnished with a
reply to King Edward's letter and permission to trade,
he returned to London. In April 1555, Chancellor
was again sent to Moscow ; the Tsar in the meanwhile
had found the remains of Sir Hugh Willoughby's other
two ships, the crews of which had been starved to death.
The result of this second voyage was the establishment
of the Russia Company at Kholmogori and Moscow, and
the visit of a Russian envoy to the Court of St James's.
Ill-luck attended the return voyage; Chancellor, his
son and seven Russians, were drowned when their ship
was wrecked, near Kinnaird Head.

The English were not deterred by untoward events,
and pressed trade briskly. They had to deal with a
sovereign whose methods were detestable and whose
aim was a political and matrimonial alliance with the
Tudors, not commercial intercourse with the English
people ; the Tsar was foiled, and the English traders
succeeded. No doubt the venturers were misled by
the too glowing reports of their servants, who represented
Russia as a new Indies. Wondrous were the stories
they gave of the country and its inhabitants ; of the
immense wealth of the Tsar ; of the strange animals
that roamed in the forests. Of these last one was the
" Rossmachia," which devoured food so ravenously
that it had to pass between great growing trees in order
to reduce its distended stomach an animal not identi-
fied ; another was the Ass-camel, having the attributes
of both these beasts, which was so far believed in as
to figure in the arms of the Eastland Company and is
thought to be the yak. To these early voyagers,
earnest and austere in their new-found protestantism,
the religion of the Muscovites seemed idolatrous, and

271

The Story of Moscow

to their prejudiced writings, reproduced by generation
after generation, many of the still current misconcep-
tions concerning the Eastern Church are due.

The Governors of the Russia Company were hard-
headed, bargain-driving tradesmen, with no soul for
empire or an attempt had been made by them to conquer
and annex Russia for their sovereign and their country.
Profitable trade was their one aim and the extravagances
of their servants and apprentices their increasing lament.
Many were the complaints, piteous the explanations ;
anger on the part of the employer, indignation and
desertion on the part of the unlucky apprentices.

Ivan did not pay for the goods he had, or his chan-
cellor would not ; none dared trade but by his leave ;
his subjects feared to buy the merchants' goods lest their
sovereign might still require them for himself. The
governors paid no heed to the customs of the country
or the needs of their apprentices foundlings and
charity reared orphans no furs were to be worn ;
the ells of cloth allowed annually were in no case to be
exceeded, and the use of horses forbidden ; " if it be
against the manner of that countrie we will make it the
manner rather than forbear our money with losse to
clothe them otherwise, or maintain them to ride when
we go afoot. Let the horses and mares be sold."

So ordered the governors their full-powered servant
Anthony Jenkinson, who was further commanded to
" reduce our stipendiaries to a better order in apparel ;
forbid them riding, for such excessiveness corrupteth
all good natures, bringeth obloquy to our nation and
also loss to ourselves." " Item 34 " of this long com-
mand is " no dogs, bears, or superfluous burdens to be
kept ; no bond-men or women to wait upon them."
" Item 39, they shall pay for their apparel not at cost
price but at the selling price in Russia." Among
other things the unfortunate ill-clad apprentice bore in
272

Moscow of the English

the frozen north during arctic winter was punishment
for the company's misdoings, but the governors,
" doubt that Alcock's death proceeded from asking for
payment of our debts, as Edwardes writes, but that
he either quareled inadvisedly or else constrained the
people touching their religion, laws, or manners, being
given wisdom wolde to mislike and mock other
strangers." No wonder the English left the factory
and tried to make a living for themselves, but withal
there were many of the right grit among them, to wit,
Anthony Jenkinson who passed through Moscow in
1558 determined upon finding a way to the Indies by
the Caspian. This intrepid adventurer reached Ispahan
with the goods of the Russia company and returned
burdened with rich barter and precious gifts. Later
he fitted out a fleet on the Caspian and made war on
the Turcomans with some success, an undertaking the
difficulties of which can scarcely be estimated seeing
that he could communicate with England only by
way of Archangel, a port closed by ice for one half
of the year. Jenkinson had not only to contend with
pirates on the Volga, but was warned that the Danes
might attempt to seize his ships, Primrose, 240 tons ;
John Evangelist, 170; Anne, 1 60 ; Trinttie, 140;
as they passed the wardhouse (Vardso) "where be
enemies that do mislike the newe found trade by seas
to Russia." Sigismund II., King of Poland, tried his
utmost to stop the traffic, " sending messengers with
pretended letters of thanks to English merchants in
order to make the Tsar, Ivan, suspicious of them.

He fitted out ships in Dantzig to capture English
ships bound for the Narva, and threatened Elizabeth that
loss of liberty, life, wives and children awaited those
who should carry wares and weapons to the Muscovite
who was not only the enemy of the King of Poland
but the hereditary foe of all free nations." Among
s 273

7" he Story of Moscow

other of the company's servants who distinguished
themselves were Southam and Spark who discovered
the water-way from the White Sea to Novgorod, and
so got goods thither without such risk as was run
from Russia's enemies on the Baltic when sent by
Narva. The Flemings and Germans were jealous of
the new traders and made many misrepresentations
concerning both persons and goods. They themselves
furnished an inferior staple, but the simple people were
made to prefer it to English cloth which, as it would
not shrink as theirs did, could not be new.

Jerom Horsey was an apprentice or underling of the
Russia company at Moscow ; he attracted the Tsar's
attention by his expert horsemanship and his wit when
the Tsar questioned him respecting the Russian ships
building at Vologda for the Caspian. Horsey answered
that with others he had admired their " strange fashion."
Ivan would know what he meant by this description.
" I mean that the figure heads of lions, dragons, eagles,
elephants and unicorns were so skilfully, so richly
adorned with gold and silver, and painted in bright
colours." " A crafty youth to commend the work
of his own countrymen," remarked Ivan, and then
asked about the English Fleet, but was displeased
when Horsey described the Queen's flag as " one
before which all nations bow." These traders were
not the only British in Moscow, others were brought
as prisoners by Ivan on his return from the devastation
of Novgorod.

" At which time, among other nations, there were four score
and five poor Scotch soldiers left of 700 sent from Stockholm,
and three Englishmen in their company brought many other
captives, in most miserable manner, piteous to behold. I
laboured and employed my best endeavours and credit not
only to succour them but with my purse, and pains, and means
got them to be well placed at Bulvan near the Moskva. And
although the Tsar was much inflamed with fury and wrath

274

Moscow of the English

against them, torturing and putting many of these Swede
soldiers to death most lamentable to behold I procured the
Tsar to be told of the difference between these Scots, now his
captives, and the Swedes, Poles and Lithuanins his enemies.
That they were of a nation of strangers ; remote ; a venturous
and warlike people, ready to serve any Christian prince for
maintenance and pay, as they would appear and prove, if it
pleased His Majesty to employ and spare them such mainten-
ance. They were out of heart ; no clothes ; no arms ; but
would show themselves of valour even against his mortal
enemy the Tartar. It seems some use was made of this advice
for shortly the best soldiers were put apart and captains of
each nation appointed to govern the rest. Jeamy Lingett for
the Scottish men, a valiant, honest man. Money, clothes,
and daily allowance for meat and drink was given them ;
horses, hay and oats ; swords, piece and pistols were they
armed with poor snakes before, looke now cheerfully. Twelve
hundred of them did better service against the Tartar than
twelve thousand Russians with their short bows and arrows.
The Krim-Tartars, not knowing then the use of muskets
and pistols, struck dead on their horses with shot they saw
not, cried : ' Awaye with those new devils that come with
their thundering puffs,' whereat the Tsar made good sport.
Then had they pensions and lands allowed them to live upon ;
matched and married with the fair women of Livonia ; in-
creased into families, and live in favour of the prince and
people. " Horsey.

Unhappily their good treatment was not long con-
tinued. Soon Ivan set a thousand of his opritchniks
"to rob and spoil them," and their sufferings were
terrible. Some escaped into the English House, and
were clad and relieved there, " but," says Horsey, " we
were in danger of great displeasure in so doing." But
Horsey, a man of wide sympathies, did not confine
his aid to men of his own country ; he was instrumental
in saving many other of the captives of Ivan's wars in
the west, who were quartered in a special suburb, the
nemetski sloboda, " by my mediation and means, being
then familiar and conversant in the Court, well known
and respected of the best favourites and officers at that

2 75

The Story of Moscow

time, T procured liberty to build them a church, and
contributed well thereunto ; got unto them a learned
preaching minister, and divine service and meeting of
the congregation every Sabath day, but after their
Lutheran profession." These people " soon grew in
good liking " of the Muscovite citizens, " living civilly,
but in doleful mourning manner for their evil loss of
goods, friends, and country." Horsey was the man
chosen by Ivan to take a private message to Queen
Elizabeth in answer to the important communication
she had sent him by Anthony Jenkinson. The Tsar
provided him with horses, and a guard as far as the
confines of his territory, but " forbear to tell you all
the secrets entrusted to you, lest you should fall into
my enemy's power and be forced to betray them,
but you will give to the Queen, my loving sister, the
contents of this bottle," and the Tsar himself secreted
a small wooden spirit-flask among the trappings of the
young rider's horse.

Horsey had engaged upon a daring undertaking, and
had an adventurous journey. It was winter ; Russia
was beset by Ivan's enemies, who hated the English
for the help given the Muscovite ruler. As soon as he
crossed the border he feigned to be a refugee, but was
taken as a spy and cast into prison. The governor of
the castle, hearing that he came from Moscow, would
learn some news of his daughter, who had been carried
away a captive by Ivan's troops. She was among
those whom Horsey had helped to settle in the Sloboda,
and he gave so good an account of her, that the grate-
ful jailer liberated him and helped him forward on his
long journey. When he passed through the Nether-
lands the merchants gave a banquet in his honour and,
for favours he had rendered the foreigners in Moscow,
presented him with a silver bowl full of ducats.
Horsey returned the ducats, as he says, " not without
276

Moscow of the English

afterwards repenting of this," but kept the bowl to
remind him of their good will. He reached England,
and was received by the Queen and indicted by the
sordid governors of the Russia company, who made a
number of trivial and baseless charges. He returned
to Russia more than once, got the extravagant demands
of the company conceded, some thousands of roubles
were " preened from the shins of Shalkan, the
Chancellor," and after living through the " troublous
times " he finally settled in England ; was married,
knighted, and lived far into the seventeenth century.

Probably his " good friends " at court were Nikita
Romanof, grandfather of the first elected Tsar, and Boris
Godunov with whom Horsey was always on excellent
terms. Ivan sent a couple of hundred of his opritch-
niks to pillage the house of his father-in-law Nikita
Romanof, and the English then sheltered the family
in their house close by, and supplied them with food
and stuffs "for they had been stripped of all they
possessed." In its turn the English House suffered ;
it was burned by the Tartars in 1591, and the inmates
huddled in the cellar for days, lost Spark, the explorer,
Carver, the first apothecary in Moscow, and others,
but the survivors rushed out during a lull in the con-
flagration and made their way through the smoke and
flames to the Kremlin, where they were helped over
the wall. In 1 6 1 1 it was again destroyed by fire, in
the struggle between Pojarski and the Poles, and
finally destroyed during the French invasion. Its
site is now occupied by the Siberian Podvor, in the
Varvarka. It was not rebuilt, but a plot of land be-
tween the Broosovski and Chernichefski Pereuloks
the streets that connect the Tverskaya and Nikitskaya
behind the Governor-General's residence was granted
the colony by Alexander I., and there a new English
church, parsonage and library have been erected.

277

The Story of Moscow

The early settlers were chiefly traders, but they also
coined silver money and made weapons ; it was usual
for the Tsar to honour the house by a ceremonial call
early in the new year, and towards the autumn, the
Tsar and Court accompanied the merchants the first
stage of their homeward journey towards Archangel,
and gave them a parting feast and toast at a picnic in
the forest a custom observed by Peter I. until he
founded St Petersburgh. Their status was, and is,
that of foreign guests, and they were subject to the
common law and custom. William Barnsley of
Worcester appears to have been the first Englishman
exiled to Siberia. Ivan the Terrible thought him too
familiar in his behaviour towards the Tsaritsa, so
banished him, but he returned after twenty-six years,
hale and very wealthy. Giles Fletcher, father of
Phineas Fletcher, the poet, obtained an undertaking
that Englishmen should not be put to the torture or put
on the put-key whipping block before condemnation.
His own book on Muscovy was promptly suppressed
on the petition of the Russia Company, whose members
so far from supporting the rights of their countrymen,
were not altogether displeased that an escaped apprentice
or other roving Englishman if not roasted, " yet
were scorched." Peter the Great put to death the
beautiful Miss Hamilton, a lady of honour to his wife
Eudoxia and nearly related to his own mother's foster-
parents, but he is said to have accompanied her to the
scaffold and picked up the head as it dropped from the
block and pressed his lips to hers.

There were Englishwomen in Moscow in the sixteenth
century, for, apart from the anecdote respecting Ivan's
treatment of them, Jane Richard, the widow of his
physician, the notorious Dr Bomel, was sent back to
England in 1583, and in 1602 John Frenchman
founded the Apteka in Moscow in 1586, and returned

Moscow of the English

to Moscow with his wife and family in 1 602. From
the complaints of the Russia Company of their young

TOWER OVER THE REDEEMER GATE (sPASSKI VOROT)

employees, it would appear that married men were sent
out, " as also a Divine to exhort the single to righteous
conduct," quite early in its history. From these people
who lived apart from the citizens and enjoyed certain

279

The Story of Moscow

privileges, the Russians derived new ideas as to
woman's place in the household, and many families
adopted the foreign customs long before Peter " com-
manded " that the terems should be thrown open and
the example of the Court followed by all.

The visible memorials of the early English settlers
in Moscow may be found about the Kremlin in such
works as the great central tower, Ivan Veliki, built by
John Villiers, the beautiful Church of St Catherine
that behind the Golden Gate (v. p. 161) accredited
to John Taylor ; and, still more characteristic, those
Gothic towers which rise so majestically above the
Troitski and Spasski Gates. In them the influence of
the east is scarcely to be discovered, even such use as
is made of the ogival arch being quite as native to the
Gothic of the later period as to the Russian architecture,
whilst those forms of decoration common to Moscow
prior to, and during, the seventeenth century are as
completely ignored as the designs of the Italian builders
of the wall these Gothic towers crown. In the view
illustrated the belfry tower of the Church of St
Catherine also figures, in not unpleasing contrast with
the more severe, and beautiful, but commoner architecture
adopted by Galloway.

Foreign craftsmen flocked to Moscow during the
glorious reign of Alexis, and the Russia Company
prospered, but the English settlers received a temporary
check when the quarrel rose between King and Parlia-
ment. Alexis, in gratitude for favours shown his
ancestors by the English, sent Charles grain and furs,
and banished those who declared for the Common-
wealth. He annulled the charter of the Russia
Company when Cromwell succeeded, and would have
no intercourse with the Protector. In this, as in most
matters, Cromwell ultimately obtained his own way.
The difficulty was smoothed away by Cromwell's
280

Moscow of the English

roaming ambassador, the able Bradshaw, who did not
even need to visit Russia to accomplish so little.
Trade was re-opened, and later Alexis corresponded
with the great Englishman. During the reign of
Peter all foreign residents, not military leaders, were
oppressed their wages were withheld that they might
not escape the country and agreements and contracts
disregarded, but there was no open enmity between the
races save for a short time subsequent to the seizure of
Malta, which act greatly embittered the Emperor Paul
against the English. The Marquess of Carmarthen
obtained a tobacco monopoly from Peter the Great,
who on his return to Moscow now punished as severely
those of his subjects who would not acquire the habit
as he had previously done those who indulged it. But
he disregarded the provisions of the contract and the
result was that Queen Anne's representative at Moscow
was instructed to send home the workmen and secretly
destroy all the material and machines in the factory at
Moscow. The envoy and his secretary "spent long hours
and nights " in accomplishing this service with their
own hands probably the last actual direct interference
of the British Crown with matters commercial and
industrial, for it failed of its ultimate purpose, and
brought disaster.

Scotch soldiers of fortune found their opportunities
in Russia, and made the most of them. One of the
best known among them is the sturdy Patrick Gordon,
who entered the Swedish service under the grand-
father of Charles XII. ; was captured by the Poles
and served them until taken prisoner by Alexis. The
Tsar had heard that Gordon had taken pity upon
Russian captives in Warsaw, and at his own cost fed
them, so sent for him that he might thank him
personally for the " favours shown to the poor captives
in Warsaw," whereupon Gordon offered his sword to

281

The Story of Moscow

Moscow, and served faithfully. One Alexander
Gordon, who claimed cousinship, found his way to
Moscow, and was made an officer by Peter " for that
he, single handed, thrashed seven Russian officers who
had insulted him." He also married a daughter of
Patrick Gordon, and wrote the best contemporary
biography of Peter I. Crawford helped the Gordons
to form a regiment of regular soldiers, and Field-
Marshal Bruce with Gordon rendered such valuable
services, that Peter instituted the Order of St Andrew,
for distinguished military services, and these Scotchmen
were the first to be decorated.

After the peace of Tilsit Napoleon wished Alexander
to banish or imprison the English in Russia, but the
Tsar answered, " Their ancestors have been here during
past centuries and I shall not treat my old friends so
ill as to consider them enemies ; if they choose to
remain in Russia none shall molest them." They
suffered during the French occupation of Moscow ;
their Church was burned, and the residence of their
pastor as well as their own warehouses and dwellings.
It is said that one Englishman, more astute than most,
buried his treasure and a little less deep interred the
body of a French soldier. The marauders seeing the
newly-turned earth dug until they reached the body of
their comrade, but sought no further, and the next
year the Englishman removed his treasure intact.
During the Crimean war, the only inconvenience the
English residents suffered was the loss of trade.
The police doubted whether it was lawful for the
community to offer up prayers for the defeat of the
Russians the Queen's enemies and the matter was
referred to the Emperor Nicholas, who answered that
the English were "to be allowed to pray for whom-
soever and whatsoever they pleased." From the
English settlers have descended men who have disfin-

Moscow of the English

guished themselves, as amongst poets, Lermontof (Lear-
month) ; amongst diplomats, Count Balmaine (Ramsay
of Balmaine) and Prince Menzikov (Menzies) ; among
soldiers, Barclay de Tolly (from a Scotch Protestant
refugee) and Skobelev (Scobie) ; amongst architects,
Sherwood, designer of the Historical Museum, and
Parland, architect of the Memorial Cathedral, St
Petersburg, and in other walks of life, others the
equals of these. The colonists have but one policy
to support the Government and do not fuse freely
with the Slavs. Some still cling tenaciously to the
nationality of their ancestors, whilst in dress, language,
manners and aspirations indistinguishable from those
Russians of the class with whom they associate.
Pathetic figures some ; reluctant to relinquish the pass-
port that alone links them with the land of their
fathers, looked at askant by the Britons newly out,
a nuisance to diplomatists, and a puzzle to the
"orthodox."

283

CHAPTER XIV
The French Invasion ana after

" Now, Robber ! look what thou hast done :
Come, for the strife prepare thee.
This land we fight on is our own
And God's revenge is near thee !

ZHUKOVSKI "NAPOLEON."

XJOT unfrequently Russia has been treated by the
powers of western Europe with less consideration
for justice than they have observed in their dealings
with each other, but on no occasion has a civilised
country more grossly outraged the sense of right than
did France by its memorable campaign of 1812. It
is possible that Napoleon still felt piqued because his
offer to enter the Russian army had been declined by
Zaborovski in i 789 a rejection which the old general
had many times keenly regretted long before 1812
and it may be that Napoleon resented his refusal by
the Princess Katerina, and was disgusted that the
hand of the Princess Anna, which he had subsequently
sought in marriage, had been bestowed in preference
upon a German princelet. It is idle to suppose that
technical breaches of the treaty of Tilsit by Russia
who was unable to stop commercial relations with
England were anything more than a mere pretext
for the war. Like the wolf in the fable who had
determined to devour the lamb that had disturbed
the lower waters of the stream, any excuse served
284

The French Invasion and after

this wickedly ambitious upstart to gratify his lust for
further spoils and military glory. Doubtless Napoleon
before whom Latin and Teutonic kings bowed low
and their subjects trembled when he but feigned to
unsheath his sword expected that the formidable
preparations he made for war would awe Russia into
submission, and thus gratify his vanity : but Russia
heeded his bluster as little as did England, so, with
the eyes of Europe upon him, he had no option but
to drink up the liquor he had uncorked. Russia
doubted his seriousness, but regarded the inevitable
with equanimity. It seemed improbable that France,
after centuries of enlightenment and progress, with its
professed love of philosophy, art and culture, should
raid Russia for pelf just as Tartars, Kalmucks, and
hordes of rough unlettered barbarians out of Asia had
done in ages past. If it were so to be, Russia doubted
not but she could triumph over the forces of the west
even as she had done over those of the east.

On the loth June 1812 the French army crossed
the Niemen unopposed, and five days later occupied
Vilna, where Napoleon expected attack, but, unmolested
for eighteen days, moved on towards Vitebsk. The
Russian army, commanded by Barclay de Tolly, did
nothing more than cause the invaders to manoeuvre
unceasingly, and advance further into the country.
On the banks of the Dvina Napoleon thought to end
the campaign of 1 8 i 2 ; recuperate his army and march
against Moscow the following spring ; but as yet no
action had been fought, so he again hurried on after
the Russians, this time towards Smolensk.

It is held that the withdrawal of the Russians dis-
concerted Napoleon ; but he had already met other
armies than the English, so to him this retreat of his
enemy was not new. He expected to come up with
the Russians at Smolensk, but Barclay de Tolly,

285

although assuring the inhabitants of their safety, sent
away the treasure and had determined to abandon the
town. It was garrisoned by but one regiment when
Neverovski fell back upon it after his engagement with
the French at Krasnoe. Raevski, sent to his aid,
entrenched his troops and determined to hold the town
until the two armies under Tolly and Bagrateon, then
encamped on the left bank of the Dnieper, should arrive.
But they fell further back instead of advancing, and
after one day's fighting, with terrible loss, the Russians
evacuated after setting fire to the town. Napoleon
remained there four days, then followed the Russians
towards Moscow. Notwithstanding his proclamations
of amity towards the peasants, his promises of freedom
for the serfs, the people began to realise that the march
of the Grande Armee was as disastrous as an incursion
of the Tartar Horde. The country was devastated ;
the houses were pillaged ; the owners shot ; churches
deserted ; horses stabled in the sacred places ; holy
ikons burnt ; matrons and maidens ravished by these
heroes of the " twenty nations " of the west. Resistance
there must be and the villagers took up arms ; Kutuzov
took chief command of the army, but Barclay de Tolly
still gave his advice, and General Sir Robert Wilson
remained tactical counsellor. On August 24th (old
style) the Russians gave battle on the banks of the
Moskva, near Borodino. In this "battle of the
generals" about 120,000 men were engaged on each
side, and 80,000 were killed, among them 18 generals
and i 5 other officers of high rank in the French army ;
and 22 commanding officers on the Russian side.
Over 50,000 corpses and 30,000 dead horses were
found in the field of battle, and though the Russians
retreated, the French halted five days, then they moved
forward upon Moscow, being nearly starved and quite
tired of the war. Kutuzov had then to decide whether
286

The French Invasion and after

or not to risk another battle in an attempt to save
Moscow.

At the Council of War, held at Fili, Barclay de Tolly said
that when it was a matter of the salvation of Russia, Moscow
was only a city like any other. Other generals, like Grabbe,
declared that although it would be glorious to die before
Moscow, the question they had to decide was not what would
add to their glory, but to the defeat of the enemy. Prince
Eugen of Wurtemburg held that honour ought to be placed
before all, and that Moscow ought to become the tomb of
every true Russian, all should choose death rather than flight.
Wilson, whose object was rather the defeat of Napoleon than
the preservation of Russia, said Moscow, to them, must be only
a city, " like any other." Ermolev. Ostermann, Beningsen
and others were in favour of a last battle. " Amid such diverse
counsel," said Kutuzov, " my head, be it good or bad, must
decide for itself," and he ordered a retreat through the town,
but he himself would not enter it, and wept as he hurriedly
passed the suburbs.

During the first decade of the eighteenth century
there were joyous days in Moscow; in 1801 Alex-
ander was crowned; in 1803 he revisited the town
when there were public rejoicings for the victories
over the Turks; when in 1812, after the outbreak of
hostilities Alexander came to Moscow, the patriotic
citizens promised to raise 80,000 men in that district
and equip them. The Tsar returned to St Petersburg
and appointed Count Rostopchin governor ; a clever
man, courtier, wit, cynic, he proved an able adminis-
trator, possessed the gift of inciting and controlling the
uneducated masses, so his plan to destroy the city
escaped opposition from the inhabitants.

Rostopchin studied the peasants' ways and knew how to
throw dust in the eyes of all. " I do everything to gain the
goodwill of everybody. My two visits to the Iberian Mother
of God, the freedom of access I allow to all, the verification of
weights and measures, even the fifty blows with a stick to a
sub-officer who made the mujiks wait too long for their salt,
have won me the confidence of your devoted and faithful

287

The Story of Moscow

subjects. I resolved at any disagreeable news to question its
truth ; by this means I weaken the first impression and before
there is time to verify it, other news will come which will
need to be attended to." The Government mistrusted the
people, most of whom are serfs, and might allow themselves
to be tempted by the proclamations of " freedom for all " which
were issued by Napoleon. Rostopchin gave the patriot
Glinka 300,000 roubles to be used as would best serve the
interests of Moscow, but Glinka returned the money, for all
were ready enough to resist the invader. Rostopchin invented
victories : he caused news of one by Ostermann and another by
Wittgenstein to be promulgated, and though sensible people
did not believe him, the ignorant were faithful to the end.
" Fear nothing," he said to the citizens ; " a storm has come ;
we will dissipate it ; the grist will be ground into meal.
Some think Napoleon is coming to stay ; others that he
chinks only to skin us. He makes the soldiers expect the
Field-Marshal's baton, beggars think to get gold, and while
such simpletons await him, he takes them by the neck and
hurls them to death." Again : " I will answer with my head
that the scoundrel shall not enter the city ; if he attempts this
I shall call on all. Forward, comrades of Moscow ! Let us
out to fight. We shall be 100.000 ; we shall take with us
the ikon of the Virgin, 150 guns and be sure we shall finish
the affair one and all." After Borodino he issued another
proclamation : " Brothers, we are many and ready to sacrifice
life for the salvation of our land, and prevent the scoundrel
entering Moscow ; you must help. Moscow is our mother ;
she has suckled us, nursed us, enriched us. In the name of
the Mother of God I call on you to help to defend the Holy
Places of Moscow, of Russia ! Arm yourselves how you can,
on foot or horseback, take only enough food for three days,
go with the Holy Cross, preceded by the standards from the
Churches, and assemble on the three Hills. I shall" be there,
and together we will exterminate the invaders. Glory in
Heaven for those who go ! Eternal peace for those who die!
Punishment at the Last Day for all who hold back ! "

To the last Rostopchin nursed the illusion of the
citizens ; he told them men were at work upon some
wonderful military engine a fire balloon which would
destroy the French army instantaneously. Meanwhile
the Archbishop Augustine, who had ordered the pro-
288

'The French Invasion and after

cession through the town of the ikons of the Iberian
Mother of God, the Virgin of Smolensk, was instructed
to take the sacred treasures to Vladimir. Rostopchin
had but one serious complaint against Kutuzov ; he
had asked for three days' notice if the town was to be
abandoned, he got but twenty-four hours. Every-
thing of value that could be removed was packed and
sent away ; there was a general exodus on the night
of the ist September (old style) and Rostopchin left
with the Russian army, the rear-guard of which was
quitting the city by the Preobrajenski suburb at the
same time that the advance-guard of the French army
entered it by the Dragomilov Zastava. Before he
left Rostopchin opened the prisons, gave the lowest
class the entry to the arsenal, and ordered the stores
to be fired ; also, he put to death one Vereshchagin,
accused of publishing Napoleon's proclamation, a deed
that was no less criminal because needless. And here
Rostopchin's work ended ; if he had received longer
notice of Kutuzov's decision to abandon the town he
would doubtless have saved more of the valuable portable
property of state and church, and might have destroyed
the town. With reference to all the correspondence
that ensued as to the party responsible for the firing of
Moscow, it can be said only that Rostopchin and the
Russians would like to have had the credit for making
a so magnificent sacrifice, but it was of political ex-
pedience that the Russians should believe the destruc-
tion of the holy places and their revered city directly
due to the invader.

The apologists of Napoleon attribute his misconduct
of the campaign to ill-health ; as likely as not the
thwarting of his plans by the enemy, his defeats and
doubtful victories caused his illness. Whether his
genius failed him or not, there can be no doubt of
the magnitude of the conception and the utter ineptitude
T 289

The Story of Moscow

exhibited in its execution. After Borodino his generals
lost faith in him ; they remained taciturn and morose,
until at two o'clock on the afternoon of September the
2nd, the staff obtained their first view of Moscow from
the summit of the Poklonnaya Hill, the " salutation "
point of the Sparrow Hills. In the bright sunlight of
the early autumn, the city, resplendent with gold domes
and glittering crosses, seemed the fitting goal for their
long deferred hopes and they of one accord raised a
joyful shout, " Moscou ! a Moscou ! "

Even Napoleon expressed his admiration and delight,
and received the warm congratulations of his now en-
thusiastic generals. It was rumoured that an officer had
arrived from the town to discuss terms of surrender :
Napoleon halted, but grew uneasy when the expected
messenger could not be found and there were no signs of
an approaching delegate or of that deputation of gor-
geously robed boyards he had fondly hoped would attend
his coming to surrender the keys of the Kremlin and sue
for his clemency towards the citizens. A n hour before
he had commanded Count Duronelle to hurry on to
Moscow and arrange for the ostentatious performance
of the customary ceremony. He was now told that
the town had been abandoned by the officials, that the
citizens had forsaken it, but Moscow, empty it is true,
was at his feet. Murat had found a few stragglers,
amongst them a French type-setter, and these wretched
fugitives were ordered before the staff, and by their
spokesman begged for protection. " Imbecile " was
the only word Napoleon trusted himself to answer.
His chagrin, his wounded self-love, his mortification at
the unexpected turn of affairs unnerved him. One of
the Russian prisoners describes the effect of the news
thus :

"Napoleon was thoroughly overcome and completely lost
his self-control. His calm and regular step was changed into

290

'The French Invasion and after

a quick, uneven tread. He kept looking around him, fidgetted,
stood still, trembled all over, looked fierce, tweaked his own
nose, pulled a glove off and put it on again, tore another glove
out of his pocket, rolled it up into a ball, and, as if in deep
thought, put it into his other pocket, again took it out, and
again put it back, pulled the other glove from his hand, then
quickly drew it on again, and kept repeating this process.
This went on for an hour, during which the generals standing
behind him remained like statues, not even daring to move."

Various accounts are given respecting the first entry
of the troops into Moscow. Some of the inhabitants
who remained, having faith in the assurances of Ros-
topchin, welcomed the invaders believing them to be
some of the foreign allies of the Russian army. An
official who had not been able to escape states that he
saw some serfs carrying arms from the arsenal, one, who
was intoxicated had a musket in one hand and in the
other a carbine, for remarking upon the folly of such
an armament, the man threw first the musket then
the carbine at him, and a crowd of rioters rushed from
the arsenal all armed, as the advance-guard of the French
approached. The captain begged an interpreter to .ad-
vise the crowd to throw down their arms and not engage
in an unequal struggle, but the ignorant people, excited
if not intoxicated, fired a few rounds accidentally, or by
design, and the French thereupon made use of their
artillery, and a wild fight ensued. After some ten or
a dozen had been sabred, the others asked for quarter,
and received it. Another story is to the effect that
some of the armed citizens mistaking a general for
Napoleon, fired at him as he approached the Kremlin
and were then charged by his guard and put to flight.
When later, Napoleon rode up to the Borovitski Gate,
a decrepid soldier, a tottering veteran, too stubborn to
forsake his post, resolutely blocked the way and was
mercilessly struck down by the advance-guard.

The fires commenced the same evening that the

291

The Story of Moscow

French entered the town ; there were no engines avail-
able and the soldiers, hungry and joyful, disregarded
the danger and attended to their more immediate
needs. Rostopchin had ordered that the contents of
the " cellars " should be burned, but there was no lack
of liquor, and the conquerors were not to be denied.
As the " Warriors " sing in Zhukovski's epic :

' O, yes ! the ruby stream to drain
Is glory's pride and pleasure-
Wine! Conqueror thou of care and pain,
Thou art the hero's treasure."

So whilst rank and file caroused, the small beginnings
of the great conflagration were neglected and men
were powerless to cope with the later developments,
though some worked like Trojans. The stores of oil,
of spirits, the inflammable wares in the Gostinnoi Dvor
were ignited, and although Marshal Mortier worked
well to extinguish the fires near the Kremlin, the lack
of engines and the continuous outbursts of fresh fires,
made complete success impossible. The looting of the
town commenced at once ; soon the greedy soldiers
left their partly cooked rations to search for valuables,
even the sentinels forsook their posts and they fought
with the rabble from the prisons for such goods as
seemed most easily removed. In time, not content with
such as had been abandoned, they commenced to rob
from the person ; women were spoiled of head-dresses
and gowns, the men fought with each other for the
temporary possession of pelf. The only lights for this
unholy work were the torches all carried and the fires
the looters set ablaze in order that they might see.
When Napoleon thought the conflagration was the
result of a preconcerted scheme he ordered all incendi-
aries to be shot, and then none durst carry a light by
night without risk of being there and then shot by
292

The French Invasion and after

some predatory soldier on his own initiative, or, not
less surely executed in due form after a mock court-
martial at dawn of day.

Discipline was lax ; among the soldiery of the army
of occupation, many bold souls did just as they wished,
and of their enormities, their cruelties and shameful
orgies, nothing need be written. Others had leave of
absence a licence to pilfer. They not only ransacked
the occupied houses, but dragged people from their
hiding places, harnessed them to carts, with bayonet
and worse urged them on, heavily laden, through burn-
ing streets, and saving themselves from the crumbling
walls and roofs, saw their miserable captives crushed,
buried, or struggling among the burning debris, and
abandoned to their fate. In the immediate neighbour-
hood of the Kremlin the pilfering was official ; in the
Cathedral of the Assumption, great scales and steelyards
were set up, and outside two furnaces, one for gold the
other for silver, were kept ever burning to melt down
the settings torn from the sacred pictures, the church
vessels, the gilt ornaments, aye, even the decorations
on the priests' robes. Horses were stabled in the
cathedrals and churches ; Marshal Davoust slept in
the sanctuary with sentinels on both sides of the
"royal doors" of the ikonostas. "Destroy that
mosque," was Napoleon's peremptory order to one
of his generals with reference to the Church of the
Protection of the Virgin, but he delayed executing the
order finding this cathedral convenient as a stable and
storehouse. At first the fire was most severe in the
warehouses flanking the Grand Square and along the
quays. It spread most rapidly amidst the great stores
on the south side of the river. The Balchoog was
a sea of flame and the whole of the Zamoskvoretski
quarter was practically destroyed. On the other side
the burning Gostinnoi Dvor ignited neighbouring stores

2 93

The Story of Moscow

in the Nikolskaya, Ilyinka and elsewhere on the

Kitai Gorod. The gleeds carried by a north wind

threatened the palaces in the Kremlin where, under

a cloud of sparks, the buildings glowed red and seemed

to many to be also burning. The ammunition had

already been brought there and caused the French

great anxiety. Napoleon, after a peaceful night in

the royal palace, was unwilling to believe that the

fires were other than accidental, but as the day

waned and the iires increased in number as well as

size, he grew agitated and exclaimed, " They are

true to themselves these Scythians ! It is the work of

incendiaries ; what men then are they, these Scythians ! "

He passed the next night in the Kremlin, but not

at rest. It was with the greatest difficulty that the

soldiers on the roof of the palace disposed of the

burning fragments that at times fell upon the metal

like a shower of hail. The heat was intense ; the

stores of spirits exploded, and blue flames hid the

yellow and orange of the burning timbers and darted

with lightning rapidity in all directions, a snake-like

progress through the denser parts of the town, firing

even the logs of wood with which the streets were at

that time paved. When the fire reached the hospitals,

where 20,000 unfortunate wounded lay almost helpless,

scenes of unmitigated horror were witnessed by the

invaders unable to succour, and chiefly intent on their

own safety. The famous Imperial Guard stationed

in the Kremlin was divided into two sections ; one

was occupied in struggling against the fire, the other

held all in readiness for instant flight. At last the

Church of the Trinity caught fire, and whilst the Guard

at once set about its destruction, Napoleon, with the

King of Naples, Murat, Beauharnais, Berthier and his

staff, left the Kremlin hurriedly for the Petrovski Palace.

The Tverskaya was ablaze, passage by that way im-

294

'The French Invasion and after

possible ; the party crossed for the Nikitskaya but in
the neighbourhood of the Arbat lost their way, and
after many adventures and near escapes found the
suburbs, and by a roundabout route reached the
Palace at nightfall. In many places the fire had
burned out by September the 5th, and that night a
heavy rain, luckily continued during the next day,
stopped the spread of the fire, and on Sunday the 8th,
Napoleon returned over the still smouldering embers
to his old quarters in the Kremlin. Amidst or near
by the cinders of the capital, Napoleon remained for
more than a month. The remaining inhabitants suffered
great hardships ; some fraternised with the French
soldiers and helped in quenching fires, but parties
accused of incendiarism were still led out almost daily
to execution. The French residents were in a most
pitiable condition ; Napoleon could not or would not
do anything for them ; they, and the rest of the
citizens, with many of the soldiers were soon threatened
with starvation.

This campaign more than any other undertaking of
his life, reveals the despicable character of Napoleon
as a man ; even as a commander he seemed to have
lost grip of the serious situation of his troops : he, who
at one time could never make a mistake now only
happened on the right thing by accident, and that rarely.
In an impoverished province, amidst a famished popula-
tion, he could not possibly winter his army, but acted
as though he intended to do so. He made stupid
speeches respecting the career of Peter the Great ;
read up the proclamations of Pugatchev, hoping to find
in them something which would enable him to incite
the people to rebel ; tried even to make allies of the
Tartars, and failed ; at the same time he sent again and
again to Alexander professing warm personal friendship
and readiness to conclude peace. Alexander heard his

295

The Story of Moscow

overtures with silent contempt. The Russian generals
were mercilessly harassing the divisions of the Great
Army in the provinces, and armed bands of peasants
sought revenge on those invaders who had violated
women and children, and desecrated the churches.

On October the 6th, Napoleon decided to begin his
retreat on the morrow, and that same evening drew up
a scheme for the visit of a Parisian theatrical company
to Moscow and its installation there. Of precious
metal from the churches of the Kremlin, nearly five
tons of silver and four and a half hundredweights of
gold had been melted into ingots. The great wooden
cross, thirty feet in length, which surmounted Ivan
Veliki, had been regilt at great cost but the year before,
and the French, thinking it solid gold, threw it down.
Like all the crosses, it was of worthless material, but
contained a small cross of pure gold, which these
disgusted pillagers failed to find.

When the time came for Napoleon to leave Moscow
he was unwilling that any should know his intention.
" Perhaps 1 shall return to Moscow," he said to one
of his company, but as he had already given orders to
Lariboisiere, the chief of artillery, to destroy the
Kremlin, he doubtless, better than anyone else, knew
that this could not be. Napoleon thought to destroy
everything of value left standing in the town ; walls,
towers, palaces, churches, convents, monasteries all
were ruined. " The defeat of Murat at Tarutin forced
Napoleon to hurry away earlier than he intended, and
lo Marshal Mortier was left the task of destruction.
He having made the requisite preparations left during
the night of the 1 1 - 1 2th October, and, not far from Fili,
gave the signal by cannon for the firing of the mines. It
was a terrible explosion in the darkness and stillness of
night ; it killed some and wounded many, and was fol-
lowed quickly by minor explosions at different points."
296

French Invasion and after

Napoleon failed even in this attempt ; the damage
done was trifling the tower over the Nikolski Gate
fell, so did one at the corner of the Kremlin wall.
There were breaches here and there, but churches and
other buildings remained intact. It is said that the
heavy rain destroyed the trains of gunpowder to the
mines, from which subsequently sixty tons of the ex-
plosive were taken. Fesanzac states Mortier inten-
tionally used powder of bad quality, not wishing to
destroy the buildings ; it is more probable that he used
the best he could get and that the director of artillery
was unwilling to waste serviceable munitions of war he
might require later.

The story of the retreat of the Grande Armee is
well known and need not be recapitulated here. If the
French and their allies suffered, the peasants also
endured terrible hardships. Shot down for defending
the honour of their wives and daughters ; for protecting
their property ; for refusing to honour the false hundred
rouble notes Napoleon had ordered to be printed in
order to reward his soldiers ; on any and every other
pretence whatever, they yet accomplished a terrible
revenge, harassing the invaders to the last. The
French slew and destroyed ; wrecked old walls,
desecrated churches, and in sheer spite threw the spoil
they could not carry further into the rivers and lakes.
Wilson urged Kutuzov to engage the refugees, whom
he termed ghosts roaming too far from their graves,
but Kutuzov trusted to the cold and the distance to
wear out the remnant of the great army. He under-
estimated the powers of human endurance, some 70,000
escaped of the half million or more that had in-
vaded Russia. Napoleon, that " incomparable military
genius," does not appear on this occasion to have
possessed the astuteness even of the mediaeval Tartar
Khans, who on their invasions withdrew " without

297

The Story of Moscow

ostensible cause " at the end of the season. More
selfish than they, he saved himself by deserting his
men. They died like flies on the approach of winter ;
some were burned during their sleep by outraged
peasants ; more were slipped through holes in the ice ;
many reached Vilna only to be entrapped by the
Russian soldiers, or, if still more unfortunate, tossed
from the upper windows of the Ghetto and kicked to
death by old polish Jewesses in the streets. Piteous?
Yes, but it is the pity one feels for the burglarious
murderer who falls on the spikes of the area railings.
The invasion of the twenty nations had even such
inglorious ending ; its effect upon the Muscovites was
similar to that which followed a great Tartar raid ;
it was unexpected disastrous, and, as long as re-
membered, engendered in the Russ that same distrust
of the west it had previously entertained of the east.

In Moscow there are now few traces of the French
invasion, for its effect was general rather than particular.
The palace occupied by Napoleon has been destroyed ;
in its place the Tsar Nicholas built his new Imperial
residence, from the windows of which may still be
seen the old Borovitski Gate, by which Napoleon first
entered and last left the Kremlin. Beyond that gate
there is now an immense and stately pile, the magnifi-
cent new Cathedral of Our Saviour, built by the people
in gratitude for their deliverance from the invaders.
A monument that furnishes conclusive evidence that
the spirit of earnestness which actuated the old cathedral
builders is not yet extinct in Russia.

One other memorial of the times will attract the
attention of visitors to the Kremlin : arranged along
the front of the arsenal, opposite the Senate House,
are ranged the cannon captured from, or abandoned
by, the Grande Armee. The inscriptions, one in
French the other in Russian, on the plates to the
298

BOROV1TSKI GATE AND ST SAVIOUR S CATHEDRAL

The French Invasion and after

right and left of the principal entrance set forth the
origin of these trophies. Most of the weapons have
the Napoleonic initial boldly engraved upon the breech ;
actually only 365 are French ; there are 189 Austrian,
1 23 Prussian, 40 Neapolitan, 36 Bavarian, I West-
phalian, 12 Saxon, i Hanoverian, 70 Italian, 3
Wurtemburgian, 8 Spanish, 22 Dutch, 5 Polish in
all 875.

Before the great fire there were over 2-500 brick or
stone buildings in Moscow, and about 6600 of wood ;
the fire destroyed over 2000 of the brick buildings and
some 4500 of the wooden dwellings. It may seem
strange that so many of the old buildings escaped. Of
course the old convents, monasteries and churches in
the suburbs, like the Novo Devichi, Simonov, Petrovski
Palace, etc., were beyond the limit of the fire ; the
remainder, many of them, stood in their own grounds or
were isolated from other buildings, much as the Strastnoi
Monastyr is now. At that time, although the town
limits were practically the same as at present the line
of the Kammer College rampart the houses were
fewer and, outside the Kitai Gorod, few streets con-
sisted of continuous rows of houses. If the visitor
wishes to have a clear comprehension of the sort of
town, in detail, the great village of Moscow was at the
beginning of this century, a drive along the Sadovia or
through the side streets between that thoroughfare and
the boundary will help its acquisition. More, it will
bring him face to face with the best of the buildings
of '* Skorodom " that sprang from among the cinders
of the great conflagration. A pleasant, bungalow-like,
garden-town ; spacious houses, with pretentious faades
in the pseudo-classic style of the first empire ; mostly
squat and inconvenient, irregular, bright with native
carpentry, stucco, painted metal roofs, and clean washed
walls. It is this Moscow that is so picturesque and so

301

The Story of Moscow

rapidly disappearing before the march of industrialism,
sanitation, and an increasing population. When Alex-
ander I. visited the town in 1816, great haste was
made to present a fair show of dwellings in the vast
open spaces ; some, painted and distempered, were
without windows, roofs, staircases, or even floors ; these
walls, then little more than the semblances of buildings,
just such as now put on the stage, were later utilised by
fitting dwellings, of a sort, to them. Some have long
served their purpose; others, curious, quaint and singular,
still remain but he who would see them must not long
delay.

With reference to the historic and sacred buildings,
those answerable for their keeping sought only to re-
store, enrich, and preserve. At no time has Moscow
possessed more or better memorials of the past than she
does at present. The risk of destruction by fire has
greatly lessened ; of further demolition by ruthless
invaders there is, happily, no longer a possibility, and
the slower but not less certain destruction from the
inroad of industrialism may be stayed by the timely
awakening of the Moscow citizens to the value of the
relics they possess, and the desire not only to preserve
them for their own sake, but also as ornaments to the
old town of which all are so fond and now anxious
to beautify.

CHAPTER XV

Itinerary and Miscellaneous
Information

" Some few particulars I have set down fit to be known of
your crude traveller.'' BEN JONSON.

T~*O many Moscow seems so far distant, and Russia
so unknown, that a few hints to intending travellers
may be welcome. In the first place as to the best
season for the journey ; notwithstanding all the claims
advanced in favour of winter and they are not in-
considerable for a first visit, or an only visit, the
summer is preferable. Moscow, the brilliant and
gorgeous is seen at its best in the bright sunlight ;
it is more picturesque and more conveniently to be
viewed in detail or entirety. The latter part of June
is the best period for then is the season of the " white
nights " when there is no need of street lamps and the
days are more than long enough for sight-seeing.

The shortest and best route is by way of Flushing,
Berlin, Warsaw and Smolensk : distance from London
1 800 miles ; time 65 hours. Return tickets available
for six weeks may be purchased at any London
terminus: first class ^16, 135. gd., second class
;io, 195. yd. Through travellers should start by
the night service from London, and change trains in
Berlin at theZoologischer Garten station ; leave Moscow
by the 5 P.M. train and in Berlin change at the

303

The Story of Moscow

Alexanderplatz station ; by these through services the
drive across Warsaw is avoided.

Of the many other routes that recommended as the
most enjoyable is via Gothenburg, by the canal to
Stockholm and thence by the excellent steamers to
Abo, Hango, Helsingfors or direct to St Petersburg
and on to Moscow by the Nikolai railway. By all
routes a Foreign Office passport, vise by the Russian
Consul, is indispensable.

Compared with the leading hotels in other great
towns, those of Moscow leave much to be desired.
Hotel Billo on the Great Lubianka is centrally situated
and much frequented by the English visitors, who
there find adequate accommodation and the greatest
courtesy. Hotel Dresden, on the Tverskaya, is upon
even higher ground, opposite the residence of the
Governor - General ; Hotel Continental facing the
Grand Theatre, and the Moskovski Traktir, opposite
the Vosskresenski Gate, are also well kept and are
near the Kremlin ; the Slavianski Bazaar is in the Kitai
Gorod. The Russian custom, which it is advisable
should be followed if a long stay is made, is to take
rooms in a hotel or elsewhere ; the rent includes
heating in winter, and the use of the samovar twice
daily. The Kokoref Hotel, on the south side of the
river, is one of the largest establishments on this plan
and many of its rooms command superb views of the
Kremlin (see p. 13) and are in demand by English
visitors on this account. The restaurants are good ; in
summer the visitor should not fail to lunch in the
lofty court of the Slavianski Bazaar which, like the
Bolshoi Moskovski Traktir, is much used by business
men. For native dishes the Praga, on the Arbat,
and Tyestov's, on the Vosskresenski Place, are the best ;
the Ermitage, on the Trubaya is more ostentatious,
but the cuisine is good; the Saratov (Srietenka

34

Miscellaneous Information

Boulevard) is favoured by university students. At
all the service is excellent, and the old-fashioned attire
of the waiters unconventional and pleasing. The
peculiarly local dishes comprise: ikra (fresh caviare),
batvennia and okroshka (iced soups), shchee (cabbage
soup with sour cream), ukha (fish soup), beluga,
osternia, etc. (different varieties of sturgeon), poros-
ianok (cold boiled sucking pig with horse-radish sauce),
rasolnik, yazu and barannybok are made dishes ; the
appropriate beverage is one of the many varieties of
kvas, which will be served iced in fine old silver
beakers or tankards of native workmanship. Tea
with lemon at the Cafe Philipov, on the Tverskaya.

Many tourists whilst on a yachting cruise in the
Baltic avail themselves of the steamer's stay in the
Neva to make a hurried visit to Moscow. To them,
and others whose stay is necessarily of short duration,
the following itinerary may be useful : -

(1) Drive through the Kitai Gorod, the Grand
Square, across the Moskvoretski bridge, along the
quay to the Kammeny Most ; cross the river and
enter the Kremlin by the Troitski Gate and alight at
Ivan Veliki. Visit the cathedrals and monasteries of the
Kremlin (Chs. viii., ix.) ; the Great Palace and Terem
(Ch. vii. ) ; Potieshni Dvorets (Ch. viii.). Later drive
out to the Novo Devichi Convent (Ch. xii. ) ; thence
to the ferry before sunset, dine at the Restoran Krinkin,
return to the Mala Kammeny Most by steamer or by
tram to the Kaluga Place see the Kremlin by moon-
light from the Kokoref.

(2) Iberian Chapel (Ch. vii.) ; Historical Museum
(Ch. ii. ) ; Treasury (Orujni Palata) in the Kremlin
(Ch. vii..) ; Spass na Boru (Ch. ix.) ; Ascension
Convent (Ch. xii.) ; through the Redeemer Gate
(Ch. xiii. ) ; Vasili Blajenni (Ch. iv. ) ; Old Gostinni
Dvor, Dom Romanovykh (Ch. xi. ); walk up the

u 305

The Story of Moscow

Starai Ploshchad, inside wall of the Kitai Gorod, to
Church of St Nicholas of the Great Cross. Then up
through the market, or outside the wall to the
Vladimirski Vorot (Ch. ix.) ; the churches and
monasteries in the Nikolski to St Mary of Kazan
behind the Town Hall. Later up the Lubianka to the
church and monastery of the Srietenka (Ch. x. ) ; the
Sukharev Bashnia, along the boulevard to the Strastnoi
Monastery (Ch. xii.) ; drive past the Triumphalnia to
Khodinski Pole, the Petrovski Palace, Park, etc.

Note. The Dom Romanovykh is usually open from
1 1 until 2 on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays ; the
Treasury on the same days ; and the Great Palace,
Terem, etc., on alternate days with these.

(3) English Church, Conservatorium, old and new
Universities, Manege, Rumiantsev Museum (Ch. x.) ;
New Cathedral (Ch. xiv.). Later to the Tretiakov
Gallery (Ch. x.) ; the Danilovski and Donskoi
Monastyrs (Ch. xii.) ; drive home across the Krimski
Bridge, Skorodom and the Sadovia.

(4) Matveiev memorial (Ch. x.) ; Church of St
Nicholas, Church of the Nativity (Ch. viii.) ; Foundling
Hospital, Novo Spasski Monastyr (Ch. xii.); Krutitski
Vorot (p. 142) ; Simonov Monastyr (Ch. xii.) and
return. Later to Krasnce Vorot and Prud, and
Sokolniki.

( 5 ) Taininskoe ; Church, Palace and Park at Ostan-
kina, Mordva (Ch. xi.); Petrovski- Razoomovski, etc.

DRIVES FROM THE TOWN

(a) Over the Dragomilov Bridge to the village of
Fili, memorial church, and izba with a museum of
memorials of the Council of War held there by
Napoleon in 1812 (Ch. xiv.).

() By the Krestovski Zastava to the old church
306

Miscellaneous Information

of the regency at Taininskoe ; the seventeenth century
church at Ostankina ; near by is the " Palace," a wooden
mansion belonging to the Sheremetiev family ; beyond
the park and village of Sirlovo is the Mordva hamlet,
(Ch. xii.).

(c ) By the Preobrajenski Zastava to the suburb of
that name (Ch. vii. ), and Transfiguration Cemetery,
and principal establishment of the Bezpopovtsi sect of
Old Believers (Ch. ix.).

(</) By the Rogojski Zastava to the cemetery and
church of that name for the religious services of the
Old Believers, (Ch. ix.).

EXCURSIONS BY RAILWAY

Few visitors to Moscow leave Russia without
seeing the Troitsa Monastery (67 versts on the
Yaroslav Railway), mentioned in Chapter v. and else-
where, but although closely connected with the history
of Moscow not within the scope of this book. Other
places of like or different interest are : the New
Jerusalem Monastery near Krukova, 36 versts on the
Nikolai Railway and about 14 miles thence by road ;
the battlefield of Borodino, (114 versts on the
Smolensk Railway) ; Nijni-Novgorod, 410 versts,
but the pleasure fair has been discontinued and the
celebrated yearly market is now exclusively commercial.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Of the English books treating of Old Muscovy the
best contemporaneous accounts have been reprinted in
the five volumes of the Hakluyt Society's publications
devoted to early travels in Russia. The best con-
temporary Life of Peter I. in English is that by
Alex. Gordon ; among the best recently published,
u * 307

T'he Story of Moscow

the translation of K. Waliszewski's study, and Eugene
Scuyler's account of the Life and Times of Peter the
Great. For matters ecclesiastical Albert F. Heard' s
Russian Church and Russian Dissent will be found
most informing, and Mr W. J. Birkbeck's history of
the Eastern Church Society's work of more particular
interest to Anglican's. In another field Mr Alfred
Maskell's " Russian Art " may be found useful, and
the antiquary will find much that is curious and
suggestive in " L'Art Russe : ses origines," etc., by
E. E. Viollet le Due (Paris, 1877).

PHOTOGRAPHY

Amateur photographers should join the Russian
Photographic Society, whose members alone have the
right to photograph throughout the empire. Other-
wise it will be necessary to obtain permission of the
chief of the police in each town or district. The
Kremlin is technically a fortress, and the use of the
camera within the walls forbidden, but leave is given
on personal application to the Governor to those
who are already furnished with the police permit, or
are members of the Photographic Society. Applica-
tion for membership should be made, prior to visiting
Russia, to the Secretary, Russian Photographic Society,
Dom Djamgarof, Kusnetski Most, Moscow.

308

INDEX

ADASHEF, 50, 52.

ALARM TOWER, 58.

ALEVISO, Fioraventi, 44, 148.

ALEXANDER GARDENS, 15, 153, 224.

ALEXANDRINA PALACE, 264.

ALEXIS, St, 23, 176, 253^

ALEXIS, Tsar, 116, 120 ff, 134, 137.

ALL SAINTS' CHURCH, 205.

ALL SAINTS' DAY, Fire on, 257.

AMBROSE, Archbishop, 257.

AMUSEMENTS, 237.

ANNUNCIATION, Cath. of, 293 ff,
and see BLAGOVIESHCHENSKI
SOBOR, Church of, 149.

ARBAT, 49, 82, 225, 295.

ARCHANGELSKI SOBOR, 190^".

ARCHITECTURE, Muscovite, 3, 223,
302 ; arches, 168 ; Church, 181,
diversity of, 225 ; Domestic, 169,
225, 228 ; Ecclesiastical, 177 ;
Origin of Muscovite, 168 ; of
" Skorodom," 220, 301.

ARMS of Moscow, 36, 125.

of Romanofs, 125.

of Russia, 36.

ART, Bookbinders', 192 ; Byzantine
examples, 122, 142, 261 ; church,
ig2_, 194 ; decorative, 246 ; ecclesi-
astic, 182 ; frescoes, 192 ; gems and
jewellery, 198 ; Gothic influence
on Muscovite, 141, 280; ikon-
portraiture, 183 ; metal work,
243 ; pictorial, 221 ; wall-paint-
ings, 188, 195.

ASKOLD AND DYR, 5.

ASCENSION CONVENT, 257, and see

VOSSNESENSKI.

ASSUMPTION, Cath. of, 185^"; and

see USPENSKI SOBOR.
Church of, 89.

B

BAATI, 16.

BALAAM, Metrop., 253.

BARMI, 140.

BASMANOVS, 74, 91, 98.
BEARDS and Fines, 216.
BELSKIS, 81, 91.
BEST, Harry, 240.
BELLS, Founding, 159.

Moscow, 157 ff.

BELVEDERES, 41, 117, 154.
BIBLIOGRAPHY, 307.
BIELO-GOROD, 40, 82, 207.

BlELO-OzERSK, 52, 92.

BLACK Clergy, 253.
BLAGOVIESHCHENSKI SOBOR, 44,

Z 3> 193^-

" BLESSED WILLIE," 67.
BLESSING the Water, 150.
BOGOLOOBSKI, Andrew, 15, 87.

BOGOYAVLENNI MoNASTYR, 27 255.

BOMEL, Dr E., 72, 278.
BORODINO, Battle of, 286.

BOROVITSKI VOROT, 41, 291, 299.

BOWES, Jeremy, 43, 62.

BOYARDS, 63 ; customs of, 227 ;

duma of, 81, 134.
BRIDES of the Tsars, 118, 120.
BRUCE, Field-Marshal, 210 ; Tomb

of, 261.
BYZANTIUM and Moscow, 32.

Style of in, 261.

Symbols of, 140.

C

CANNON, 96, 160, 300.
CARRIAGES and Harness, 140.
CASPIAN, Jenkinson on the, 273.
CATHEDRALS, Location of, 164 ; see

SOBOR and XRAM.
CHANCELLOR, R., 132, 276.
CHANI-BEK, 253.
CHAPEL of St Dmitri, 189.

St Gabriel, 196.

St George, 196.

Sts. Peter and Paul, 189.

St Samon, 197.

see also CHURCH.
CHARACTERISTICS of boyards, 100,
"5, 237-
Ivan IV., 78.

39

Index

CHARACTERISTICS of Peter I., 206.

Moscow, i, 141, 301.

Moscow Citizens, 237.

Moscow Princes, 10, 47.

CHARM of Moscow, 225, 252.

CHASOVIA, see CHAPELS.

CHASTOK, 245.

CHEMIAKI, 28, 31, 145.

CHIBANOV, 53.

CHRISTIANITY in Russia, 3, 6. 32,

86-95, i74.#

CHODOV MONASTYR, 92, 253^.
CHURCH, Russian, 172^; feasts of,

263, and Tsar, 55, 69, 116, 215 ;

and Western Church, 32, 95 ; saves

Moscow, 23, 101.
CHURCH of St Ambrose, 266.

St Balaam, 266.

St Catherine, 259.

Sts Constantine and Helen.

St George, 259.

St James, 266.

St Jehosaphat, 266.

St John the Baptist, 130, 148.

St Lazarus, 41, 45, 127.

St Nikanor, 266.

St Nikolas, 209.

St Prokhor, 266.

St Saviour's, 161.

the Apostles, 188.

Nativity and Flight, 127.

Our Saviour on High, 128,161.

Vasili Blajenni, 47. 65, 179.

CHURCHES of the Bielo-Gorod, 205,

209, 225.

Kitai-Gorod, 204.

Kremlin, 185.

Palace 127^

Suburbs, 246, 249, 307.

Zemlianni-Gorod, 181, 209,

225.

CITIZENS AND TSAR, 34, 54.
CITY OF CHURCHES, 138.
CONSTANTINOPLE, see BYZANTIUM.
CONVENT, Ascension, 257.

Conception, 260.

Nativity, 251.

Nikitski, 224.

Novo Devichi, 265.

Strastnoi (Passion), 260, 301.

Zachatievski, 260.
CONVENT-LIFE, 258, 269.
COSSACKS, 91, 263.
CRIMEAN WAR and English in Mos-
cow, 282.

31O

CROSS, Pre-Christian, 7 ; Russian,

182, 196.
CRUELTIES, 33, 49^! 150, 212, 215,

232, 240, 246, see also IVAN IV.

and PETER I.
CUSTOMS, of early Slavs, 7; of

Mediasval Moscow, 132 ; curious,

248, 265.

DANIEL MIKHAILOVICH, 17.
DANILOVSKI MONASTYR, 17, 264.
DELAGARDIE, General, 100.
DISSENT and Dissenters, 202, 204^
DIVERSITY of Moscow, 225.
DMITRI DONSKOI, 23, i^ff.

" first false, ' : yiff.

Ivanovich, 51, 85.

"second false," 101, 103, 107.

of the " terrible eyes," 19.

DOGMA and Ritual, 177, 200.
DOLGORUKI, family, 15, 118.
Yuri, 12.

DOM CHUKINA, 223.

DOM ROMANOVYKH, Io8.

Usurov, 219

DOMOSTROI, 50, 235.
DON COSSACKS, 91, 105.
DONSKOI MONASTYR, 82, 263.
DRINKING habits, 235-236.

DUKHOBORTSI, 203.

DUMA of the boyards, 1-54.

EDIGER, 27.

ENGLISH in Moscow, 54, 58, 62,

210, 270^
EPIPHANY, 255, and see BOGOYAV-

LENNI.

ETIQUETTE, Muscovite, 43, 97.
EUDOXIA, (Donskoi), 258.

Striechnev, 119.

Lapunov, 216

EUPHROSINA, 258.
EXPRESS trains, 303.

FAIRS, 38, 238.
FAMINE, 88, 106.
FIORAVENTI, Aleviso, 44, 148.

Index

FIRE, The great, 290.^

FIRES in Moscow, 16, 23, 25, 49, 50, !

104, 227.

FLORENCE, Council of, 32.
FLOROVSKI, v. SPASSKI VOROT.
FOOD of Muscovites, 234, 305.
FOREIGNERS in Moscow, 23, 33, 52, 1

54, 58, 62, 64, 73, 99, 139, 274^ '

295.

FOUNDLING HOSPITAL, 269.
FRENCH cannon captured, 160, 297. \
Invasion, 284^"; settlers, 295. !

GADEN, Dr, 212.
GALITZIN, Kniaz, 145.
GALLOWAY. Chris.. 157, 280.
GATES, see VOROT.
GEORGE, Prince, 17.

St. 125, 259.

GLINSKI, Helena, 38, 47.

GLUISKI, 49, 71.

GODUNOV, Boris, 73, 80^. 85.

Theodore, 92.

GOLDEN Gates, 133.

Hall, 131.

Horde, see Tartars.

Palace, 82, 128.

Lesser, 82, 112, 127.

" GOOD COMPANIONS," 26.
GORDON, Patrick, 281.

Alexander, 282.

GOSTINNOI DVOR, 293.
GRANOVITAIA PALATA, 38, 43, 124,

131.

GREETING, Manner of, 242. 244.
GRIFFINS, Heraldic, 125.

H

HAMILTON, Miss, 278.

HERBERSTEIN, 43, 231.

HERMOGEN, Patriarch, 103.

HISTORICAL MUSEUM, 6, 178.

" HOLY BREAD," 255, 260.

Coat, 189.

Corridor, 131.

Moscow, 205.

Vestments, 165.

HORSEY, Jerora, 47, 58, 64, 71, 79,
85, 88. 274.

Adventures of. 276 jff.

HOTELS, 304.

HOUSES, early dwellings, 7; in
Skorodom, 223 ; of Russia Com-
pany, 277, see also DOM.

IBERIAN CHAPEL, 143, and see

VOSSKRESENSKI VoROT.
IGOR, 5.

IKONOSTAS, 129, 187, 191, 254.
IKONS, 129.

in relievo, 184.

miraculous, 257, 259, 288.

" Nerukotvorenni," 182 ff*

201, 262.

" Not made with hands,"

1 82^ 201.

private and personal, 245.

remarkable, 196.

trimorphic, 254, 257.

Varieties of, 183.

Virgin of Pechersk, 196.

Virgin of Vladimir, 187, 257.

Wonder-working, 259.

ILYINKA, VOROT, 39.
"RENE, Princess, 80-82, 87.
VAN I., 21 ff.

VAN II., 23.
VAN III., 32-36.

VAN IV., 47 et seq., anecdotes of.
53, 61 jf ; atrocities of, 49 Jf, 57^'-
241 ; tricks of, 53, 69; victims of.
76 ; wives, 77 ; wizards, 77.
VAN V., 241.

VAN " GROZNOI" v. IVAN IV.
VAN the idiot, 68.
VAN KALITA v. IVAN I.
IVAN KRESTITEL v. ST JOHN THE

BAPTIST.

IVAN " the Terrible " v. IVAN IV.
IVAN VELIKI, 88, 155.

JENKINSON, Anthony, 272.

JERUSALEM GATE, 151.

JITNY DVOR, 149.

JOHN v. IVAN.

JOHN THE BAPTIST, 22, 128.

K

KAMMER College Rampart, 209.

307.

KARAMZIN. 145.
KAZAK v. COSSACK,
KAZAN, 32, 38, 51.

Virgin of, 259.

KAZI-GHIREE, Khan, 82, 88.
KHINGIZ, Khan, 16, 25.

3 11

Index

KHLYSTI, 203.
KHOLMOGORI, 271.
KIEF, 5, 9, 22, 253.
KITAI-GOROD, 38, 82, 104, 147, 205,
238, 277, 301.

KONTCHAKA, 19.

KOURBSKI, Prince, 53.
KRASNCE KRILTSO, 126, 164.
Ploshchad, no, 238.

Vorot, 219.

Ugol, 132.

KREMLIN, 13, 22, 40 ; derivation of,
22 ; dwellings in, 40 ; sights of,
*47 ff\ view of, 13; walls, 23,
149.

KRIM-TARTARS, 82.

KRIMSKI-BRODE, 265.

KRIMSKI-VAL, 265.

KRUTITSKI VOROT, 122, 142.

KULIKOVO, 139.

KuTAIFA, 154.

KUTCHKO, Stephen, 12.
KUZNETSKI MOST, 208.

LATIN in Moscow, 145.

LAZAROS, Church of St, 41, 45,

127.

LE BRUYN, 232.
LEGAL PROCEDURE, 239.
LIBRARIES, 257.
"LIFE for the Tsar," no.
LITHUANIA, 52, 76, 82.
LOBNCE MESTO, 93, 152, 251.

M

MAHOMMBDANS and Muscovites,
17, 23, 28, 34, 38, 64, 182, 265

MAIDEN'S FIELD, 265, and see Novo
DKVICHI.

MAMAI, Khan, 23^".

MARINA-ROSHCHA, 209.

MAROSSBIKA, 218.

MARRIAGE customs, 232, 241, 250.

MARY OF VLADIMIR, 187, 257.

Church of, 204.

MATVIBVS, 121, 130.

MEDICH, 147.

MlASCHANSKA, 209.

MICHAEL, Tsar, 109, 111 ff.

Mll.OSAVSKIS, I2O, 259.

MININ, Cosma, 106, 114.
MNISZBK, Maria, 97, 100, 113, 258.

JM

MONASTERIES, early, 27 ; existing,

2 53^~; see also CONVENTS.
MONKS and Monasticism, 253^
MORDVA, 249.
MOROZOF, Boyard, 73.

Boyarina, 202, 222.

Moscow, Arms of. 36 ; charm of,

2, 226, 251 ; derivation of name,
n ; fires in, 16, 23, 25, 49, 104,
227 ; the golden, 141 ; looted by
the French, 293 ; sieges of, 25. 27,
91, 105, 152 ; unconventionally
of, 2 ; views in, i, 251 ; winter in,
226.

MOSHI, 177, 255.

MOSKVA RIVER, 100, 150, 153, 264.

MOST (Bridge), Kuznetski, 208 ;
Kammeni.soj; Krasnoe Kholmski,
262 ; Krimski, 265.

MSTISLAVSKIS, 82, i.

MUSCOVY and Britain, 73, 270.

Lithuania, 37.

Livonia, 33.

Poland, Sijfi *3 2 -

Tartary, 23^ 132

MUSCOVITES of British descent, 283.
allied with Tartars, 21.

MUSEUMS, 220.
MYSTERY PLAYS, 142.

N

NAPOLEON, 124, 290^
NARYSHKIN, Family of, 121.
NATALIA, Tsaritsa, 121, 130.
NATIVITY, see Rojdestva, 181.

Church of 181.

Convent of, 251.

NHGLINNAIA, 15, 49, 153.
NEW Rows, 238.
NICHOLAS, patron saint, 184.

of Galstun, 157.

Stylite, 218.

NIJNI-NOVGOROD, 38, 307.
NIKITA, Saint, 224.

the preacher, 203.

Romanof, 277.

NlKOLSKAYA, 153.

NIKOLSKI VOROT, 24, 153, 297.

NIKON, 177, 201.

NOBLES, Muscovite, 42, 81, 87, 114.

NOVGOROD THE GREAT, 5, 38, 57.

Novi RIADI, 238.

Novo DEVICHI CONVENT, 87, 265.

NOVO-SPASSKI MONASTYR, 262.

Index

o

ODDITIES, io8, 248.

"OLD BELIEVERS," 203.

OLEG, 5.

OLGA, 6.

OPRITCHNIKS, 56, y)ff-

ORTHODOXY and Dissent, 95, 202,

204,

ORUJENIA PALATA, 139.
OSLIABIA, 24.
OSMAN and Ahmed, 13.
OSTANKINA, 209.
OTREPIEF, 92.
" OUR Saviour on High," Ch. of,

128, 161, 280.

PAGEANTRY, Church, 243.

State, 123, 137, 243.

PALACE, Chequered, 38.

Golden, 82, 128.

Granovitaia, 43, 124, 131.

Great, 124.

Irene's, 80-82, 87.

Lesser Golden, 127.

PALACES, early, 40 ; site of, 124.
PALEOLOGUS, Thomas, 32.

Sophia, 33, 128, 232.

PANAGIES, 257.

PASSPORT, 304.

" to St Nicholas," 246.

PATRIARCHS, Passage of the, 127.

Sacristy of, 197.

86, 96, 106, 177^ 215.

PATRIARSHIA RIZNITSA, 197^
PECHERSKI, 165, 253.
PERESVET, 24.

PETER I., in, 121, 206, 209^ 215.
PETROVSKI MONASTERY, 250.

Palace, 301, 306.

RAZOOMOVSKI, 209.

PHILARET, Patriarch, 109, 116.
PHILIP, Metropolitan, 55.

Church of, 197.

PLAGUE RIOTS, 257.
PLATE, 140.

PLEASURE PALACE, 154, 166.
POJARSKI, Prince, 107, 114.
POLAND and Muscovy, 81, 132.
POLES in Moscow, 101.
POLISH INVASION, 99^-
POTIESHNI DVORETS, 154, 166.
PRINCE and Peasant, 107, 114.

PROCESSIONS, 126, 243^.
PROVERBS, Muscovite, 216.
PRUD, Chisty, 12, 251.

Krasnce, 306.

Lizin, 261.

PUBLIC Buildings, 224.
Clocks, 195.

JUAINT survivals, 244^ 249, 276.
JUEEN ELIZABETH, 77, 85.

RAMPARTS, Kitai-Gorod, 38, 238.

Kremlin, 148 ; town, 209, 306.
" RED," see KRASNOZ.
REDEEMER GATE, 181 ; and see

SPASSKI VOROT.
REGALIA, 140.
RELICS, 189, 192, 196, 255, and sec

MOSHI.

RESTAURANTS, 252, 304.
RIDING-SCHOOL, 224.
RITES, Funeral, 246 ; Marriage, 38,

77, 250.
RITUAL of Russian Church, 184,

199.

ROJDESTVA, 181, 251.

ROMAN Church and Orthodoxy, 86,

95-

ROMANOF, Anastasia. 49, 109.
Dynasty, 109^; House, 108,

228. See also ALEXIS, PETER,

PHILARET, etc.
ROSTOPCHIN, Count, 287.
" ROYAL DOORS," 180, 197.
RUFFO, Marco, 131.
RUMIANTSEV MUSEUMS, 220.

RURIK, 5.

RUSSIA Company, 271^

SACRISTY of the Patriarchs, 197.

SAINTS, Russian, 184^:

ST SAVIOUR'S, see SPASS NA BORU,

XRAM, etc.
SAKKOS, 256.
SANCTUARY, 188.
SCANDINAVIAN influence, 8.
SCHLITTE, John, 64.
SCHOOLS in Moscow, 123, 205, 210,

257.

3'3

Index

SCOTS in Moscow, 275, 281.

SCYTHIANS, 5, 294.

SE.MIRADSKI'S Pictures, 7.

SERFDOM, 86.

SERGIUS, Saint, 175.

SERVANTS' etiquette, 238.

SHALKAN, 277.

SHEIN, Captain, 105.

SHOOISKI, family, 48, 81 ; Vasili,

95jf'i Michael, 99.
SHRINES, 256.

SIMEON BEKBULATOV, 69, 262.
The Proud, 22.

SlMONOV MONASTYR, 260^

SKOPIN, Shooiski, 99, 192.
SKOPTSI, 203.
SKORODOM, 301.
SKUTAROV, Maluta, 56, 72.
SLAVERY, 265.
SLAVS, Early, 5.
SMOLENSK, TOI, 105
SNF.GUIREV, 151, 188.
SOBORNIA PLOSHCHAD, 163.
SOLARIUS, P. A., 151.

SOLTIKOVS. Il8, 241.

SOPHIA, Paleologus. 32, 128.

Tsarevna, 145, 211^ 255.

SORCERY in Moscow, 77, iz, 247.
SPARROW Hills, i, 38, 42, 50, 251,

3S-
SPASS NA BOKU, 15, 22, 26, 29, 124,

196.

SPASSKI VOROT, 24, 58, 151, 279.
SRIETENKA (Meeting) ; street, 209.

Monastyr, 208.

" STANDARDS," Army, 140 ; church,

243.

STENKI-RAZIN, 145.
STRELTSI, 152, 207,211-215.
STRIECHNEV, family of, 120.
STOVES, 95, 128, 230.
SUKHAREV BASHNIA, 208, 251.
SUSSANIN, no.

SwEEDES, 113-

SYLVESTER, 50.

SYMBOLS, 35, 36, 140; Cross, 182;

George and Dragon, 36 ; Two

Headed Eagle, 35.

TAINITSKI GATE, 150.
TAKING the Veil, 38, 266.
TAMERLANE, 25.

TARTARS, allied with Muscovites,
21 ; cause of the invasions, 16 ;

defeats of, 23, 32, 35 ; insult,
Ivan Vasili, 38 ; Ivan IV., 64 ;
invasions, 9, 16, 25, 26, ^4, 38, 63,
82.

TAYLOR. John, 166, 280.
'< TEA, 235, 305.
TEREM, 41, 112, 117, 126; Life in,

2 34-
i THEODORE I., 80 ff.

\ II., 123^.

Godunov, 92 ffi

Romanof, 123, 128.

; St, 259.

THRONES, State, 140 ; church, 189.
i THRONGS, 181.

THURIFERS, 129.

TOKHTA, 19.

TOKHTAMYSH, Khan, 25.

TOMB of Eudpxia, Tsaritsa, 266.

of Dmitri, 191.

Ivan IV., 192.

Simeon, 262.

Sophia, Tsarevna, 266.

TOMBS of boyards, 263 ; of Mat-
vievs, 219 ; of Romanofs, 263 ; of
Tsars, 191 ; of Tsaritsas, 238 ; of
Varaegers, 191

" TONGUES," 216.

TORTURE, 150, 239 ; v. CRUELTIES.

TOWER, see also BASHNIA.

Alarm, 58.

Chastok, 245.

of Constantine, 150.

Ivan Veliki, 88, 155.

Kutaifa, 154.

Philaret, 156.

Sukharev, 208.

Traitors', 150.

Tsaritsa's, 150.

Watch, 245.
TRADERS, Muscovite, 237.
" TRANQUIL " TSAR, 145.
TREASURY, 139 ; and see ORUJENIA

PALATA.

TREASURY, Churches, used as, 41
TRETIAKOV ART GALLERY, 221.
TRIAL by Combat, 240.
TRINITY CHURCH, 154, 294.
TRIUMKALNIA, 223.
TROITSA MONASTERY, 12, 24, 27,

31, 101.

TROITSKI VOROT, 154, 291.
TURBERVILLE, 232.
TVER and Moscow, 18, 21, 57.
" TWENTY NATIONS," Invasion of,

286^

Index

u

UGLITCH, 21, 85, 97.
UGOL, Krasnce, 132.
UNIVERSITIES, 224.
URUSOV, Princess, 202.
USBEK, Khan, 22.

USPENSKI SOBOR, 22, 117, 130, 158,

rtsff.

USUPOV HOUSE, 219.

VAL, Krimski, 265.

ZEMLIANNI, 289.

VARCEGERS, 5.

VARVARKA, 228.

Vorot, 238.

VASILI I., 26.

VASILI II., 28, 31

VASILI III., 37.

VASILI BLAJENNI, 67.

Ch. of, 47, 65, 67, 179.

VASILI THE BLIND, 26; "the squint-
eyed," 28.

VASSIAN, Archbishop, 34, 52.

VEHICLES, Primitive, 247.

VERESHCHAGIN, 221.

VEKKHOSPASSKI CHURCH, 128, 161,
280.

VESTMENTS, Sacerdotal, 198.

VIEWS of Moscow, 251.

VIRGIN of Jerusalem, 187.

of Kazan, 205.

of Pechersk, 165.

of Smolensk, 141, 244.

of Vladimir, 187^

VISSOTSKI, 251.

VLADIMIR, the Great, 6, 139 ; the
Brave, 28 ; Town of, 23.

VLADIMIRSKI VOROT, 205.

VLADISLAS, Tsar, 101.

VOIEVODES, 35, 42, 63.

VOROT, or Gate,

Arbatski, 82.

Borovitski, 41, 149, 291, 299.

Florovski, 24, 151.

Ilyinski, 39.

Jerusalem, 151.

Krasnoe, 219.

Krutitski, 122, 142.

Nikolski, 24, 153, 297.

Prechistenski, 41, 149, 291.

" Red." 219.

VOROT Redeemer, 24, 58, 151.

Spasski, 58, 151.

Sukharev, 208.

Tainitski, 150.

Troitski, 154.

Varvarka, 238.

Vladimirski, 205, 207.

Vosskresenski, 141.

VOSSKRESENSKI VOROT, 1^1 ff., 2OI,

244.

VOSSNESENSKI MONASTYR, 44,

357^-

VSEVOLOJSKIS, 120.
VSEVOLOSHSKI, 28.

W

WALLS OF BIELO-GOROD, 82.

of Kitai-Gorod, 38, 238.

of Kremlin, 23, 148.

of Zemlianni-Gorod, 209.

WATCH Towers, 245.
WEAPONS, Muscovite, 139.
WINTER in Moscow, 226.
WIVES of Ivan IV., 77.

of Peter I., 213, 216.

WIZARDS, 77, 121.

WOMEN in Mediaeval Moscow, 8,
33, 48, 61, 62, 72, 81, 86, 118, 121,
J 37i 2I 3> 2I 6) 23 1 ff> 269, 278.

XENIA, Princess, 94.
XRAM, 298, 299.

YAUZA, 249.
YERMAK, 63, 81.
YURI Dmitrovich, 28.
Dolgoruki, 28, 36.

ZABIELIN'S private life of Tsars, 134.
ZACHATIEVSKI, 260.
ZA-IKONO-SPASSKI MONASTYR, 205.
ZAMOSKVORETSKI, 264, 293.
ZAPIEHA, 101.
ZAPOROGIANS, 91 ft.
ZARIADI, 205.
ZARUTSKI, 113.
ZEMLIANNI GOROD, 209.
ZLATOUSTINSKI, 219.
ZNAMIA, 243.

PRINTED BV

TURNBULL AND SPEARS,
EDINBURGH

' '

; SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY

A 000 803 2Q9 8